Abstract
In this work we study interesting corners of the quantum gravity landscape with 8 supercharges pushing the boundaries of our current understanding. Calabi-Yau threefolds compactifications of F/M/type II theories to 6, 5 and 4 dimensions are the most prominent examples of this class, and these always lead to a universal hypermultiplet coming from the volume/string coupling constant. We find new examples of asymmetric orbifold constructions which have no hypermultiplets in 4 or 5 dimensions and no neutral hypers in 6d. We argue that these theories can also be obtained by going to strong coupling/small volume regions of geometric constructions where a new Coulomb branch opens up and moving in this direction freezes the volume/string coupling constant. Interestingly we find that the Kodaira condition encountered in geometric limits of F-theory compactifications to 6 dimensions is violated in these corners of the landscape due to strong quantum corrections. We also construct a theory in 3 dimensions which if it were to arise by toroidal compactifications from 5d, it would have to come from pure \( \mathcal{N} \) = 1 supergravity with no massless scalar fields.
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Acknowledgments
We thank Miguel Montero, Hee-Cheol Kim, Wati Taylor, Albrecht Klemm, Juven Wang, Gabi Zafir for useful discussions. We also thank Alon E. Faraggi, Stefan Groot Nibbelink, and Benjamin Percival for correspondence. We thank the 2023 Summer Program of the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics for kind hospitality where part of this work was completed. The work of YH is supported in part by MEXT Leading Initiative for Excellent Young Researchers Grant Number JPMXS0320210099. YH would like to thank Harvard University and University of Wisconsin-Madison for their hospitality during part of this work. The work of ZKB, HCT and CV is supported by a grant from the Simons Foundation (602883,CV), the DellaPietra Foundation, and by the NSF grant PHY-2013858.
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Baykara, Z.K., Hamada, Y., Tarazi, HC. et al. On the string landscape without hypermultiplets. J. High Energ. Phys. 2024, 121 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP04(2024)121
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP04(2024)121