How Heavy Can Moduli Be?

Mehrdad Mirbabayi; Giovanni Villadoro

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arXiv · 2603.09817

How Heavy Can Moduli Be?

Mehrdad Mirbabayi·Giovanni Villadoro

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Abstract

In Kaluza-Klein (KK) compactification of gravitational theories, moduli fields, which are scalar fields associated to the deformations of the compact manifold, are typically lighter than the KK gravitons. However, a universal limit on their mass does not seem to exist. We provide numerical evidence that a light scalar particle, with mass ratio to the first KK graviton $(m_{\rm sc}/m_{1KK})^2 \leq {4/3}$, is necessary for the consistency of the $4d$ effective theory of KK gravitons. This can be interpreted as a limit on how rigidly the compact manifold can be stabilized.

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Mehrdad Mirbabayi, Giovanni Villadoro. 2026-03-10. How Heavy Can Moduli Be?. https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.09817

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