arXiv subjects

Thomas Van Riet

Publications and source records attributed to Thomas Van Riet.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2018

Euclidean axion wormholes have multiple negative modes

We show that Euclidean axion wormholes in theories of gravity coupled to a single axion have several independent inhomogeneous perturbations that lower the Euclidean action. Our analysis relies on a judiciously chosen gauge-invariant variable which makes the negative mode structure about axion wormholes transparent. Perturbations lowering the action are concentrated in the neck region and exist for wormholes in flat space and in AdS. Their presence means axion wormholes are not relevant saddle points of the functional integral in quantum gravity. This resolves the paradoxes associated with these solutions from the viewpoint of AdS/CFT. We conjecture that the lower action configurations one flows to are ensembles of microscopic `quantum wormholes' with unit charge.

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arXiv2018

Racing through the swampland: de Sitter uplift vs weak gravity

We observe that racetrack models for moduli stabilization are in tension with strong forms of the Weak Gravity Conjecture (WGC). Moreover, recently, it was noted that controlled KKLT-type de Sitter vacua seem to require a racetrack fine-tuning of the type introduced by Kallosh and Linde. We combine these observations and conclude that the quests for realizing parametrically large axion decay constants and controlled de Sitter vacua are intimately related. Finally, we discuss possible approaches to curing the conflict between the racetrack scheme and the WGC.

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arXiv2018

What if string theory has no de Sitter vacua?

We present a brief overview of attempts to construct de Sitter vacua in string theory and explain how the results of this 20-year endeavor could point to the fact that string theory harbors no de Sitter vacua at all. Making such a statement is often considered controversial and "bad news for string theory". We discuss how perhaps the opposite can be true.

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arXiv2018

Instantons from geodesics in AdS moduli spaces

We investigate supergravity instantons in Euclidean $\rm AdS_5\times S^5/\mathbb{Z}_k$. These solutions are expected to be dual to instantons of $\mathcal{N}=2$ quiver gauge theories. On the supergravity side the (extremal) instanton solutions are neatly described by the (lightlike) geodesics on the AdS moduli space for which we find the explicit expression and compute the on-shell actions in terms of the quantised charges. The lightlike geodesics fall into two categories depending on the degree of nilpotency of the Noether charge matrix carried by the geodesic: For degree 2 the instantons preserve 8 supercharges and for degree 3 they are non-SUSY. We expect that these findings should apply to more general situations in the sense that there is a map between geodesics on moduli-spaces of Euclidean AdS vacua and instantons with holographic counterparts.

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arXiv2018

Minkowski flux vacua of type II supergravities

We study flux compactifications of 10d type II supergravities to 4d Minkowski space-time, supported by parallel orientifold Op-planes with 3 $\leq$ p $\leq$ 8. With some restrictions, the 4d Ricci scalar can be written as a negative sum of squares involving BPS-like conditions. Setting all squares to zero provides automatically a solution to 10d equations of motion. This way, we characterize a broad class, if not the complete set, of Minkowski flux vacua. We also conjecture an extension to include non-geometric fluxes. None of our results rely on supersymmetry.

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arXiv2018

Supersymmetric dS/CFT

We put forward new explicit realisations of dS/CFT that relate ${\cal N}=2$ supersymmetric Euclidean vector models with reversed spin-statistics in three dimensions to specific supersymmetric Vasiliev theories in four-dimensional de Sitter space. The partition function of the free supersymmetric vector model deformed by a range of low spin deformations that preserve supersymmetry appears to specify a well-defined wave function with asymptotic de Sitter boundary conditions in the bulk. In particular we find the wave function is globally peaked at undeformed de Sitter space, with a low amplitude for strong deformations. This suggests that supersymmetric de Sitter space is stable in higher-spin gravity and in particular free from ghosts. We speculate this is a limiting case of the de Sitter realizations in exotic string theories.

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arXiv2017

Domain wall seeds in CSO-gauged supergravity

Gravitational domain wall solutions in gauged supergravity are often constructed within truncations that do not include vectors. As a consequence the gauge group is only a global symmetry of this truncation. The consistency of the truncation requires the restriction to solutions with vanishing Noether charge under this global symmetry, since otherwise vector fields are sourced. We show that this has interesting consequences for the orbit structure of the solutions under the global symmetries. We investigate this for $\text{CSO}(p,q,r)$-gaugings in various dimensions with scalar fields truncated to the $\text{SL}(n,\mathbb{R})/\text{SO}(n)$ subcoset. We prove that the seed solution $-$ which generates all other solutions using only global transformations $-$ has a diagonal coset matrix. This means that there exists a transformation at the boundary of the geometry that diagonalises the coset matrix and that this same transformation also diagonalises the whole flow as a consequence of the vanishing charge.

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arXiv2017

Comments on fake supersymmetry

Flat domain walls and spherical black holes are solutions to coupled second-order ODE's of the Hamiltonian form. Hamilton-Jacobi theory then implies that first-order flow equations always exist (possibly up to isolated submanifolds). If the first-order equations factorise in a specific way, they take a form that has been named fake supersymmetry. We point out that this factorisation is always possible at zero temperature. We therefore propose a less generic definition of fake supersymmetry, which involves the boundary conditions in a non-trivial way, and we analyse its physical relevance. For instance attractor flows are necessarily fake supersymmetric in our restricted sense. To illustrate the definition we provide new analytic solutions for axion-dilaton domain walls with fake superpotentials that were argued not to exist.

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arXiv2017

Axion Wormholes in AdS Compactifications

We find regular axionic Euclidean wormhole solutions in Type IIB string theory compactified on $\text{AdS}_5\times \text{S}^5/\mathbb{Z}_k$. AdS/CFT enables a precise derivation of the axion content of the Euclidean theory, placing the string theory embedding of the wormholes on firm footing. This further sharpens the paradox posed by these solutions.

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arXiv2016

Is inflation from unwinding fluxes IIB?

In this paper we argue that the mechanism of unwinding inflation is naturally present in warped compactifications of type IIB string theory with local throats. The unwinding of flux is caused by its annihilation against branes. The resulting inflaton potential is linear with periodic modulations. We initiate an analysis of the inflationary dynamics and cosmological observables, which are highly constrained by moduli stabilization. For the simplified model of single-Kähler Calabi-Yau spaces we find that many, though not all of the consistency constraints can be satisfied. Particularly, in this simple model geometric constraints are in tension with obtaining the observed amplitude of the scalar power spectrum. However, we do find 60 efolds of inflation with a trans-Planckian field excursion which offers the hope that slightly more complicated models can lead to a fully consistent explicit construction of large field inflation of this kind.

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arXiv2015

Observations on fluxes near anti-branes

We revisit necessary conditions for gluing local (anti-)D3 throats into flux throats with opposite charge. These consistency conditions typically reveal singularities in the three-form fluxes whose meaning is being debated. In this note we prove, under well-motivated assumptions, that unphysical singularities can potentially be avoided when the anti-branes polarise into spherical NS5 branes with a specific radius. If a consistent solution can then indeed be found, our analysis seems to suggests a rather large correction to the radius of the polarization sphere compared to the probe result. We furthermore comment on the gluing conditions at finite temperature and point out that one specific assumption of a recent no-go theorem can be broken if anti-branes are indeed to polarise into spherical NS5 branes at zero temperature.

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arXiv2015

From black holes to flux throats: polarization can resolve the singularity

Supersymmetry-breaking is a key ingredient for string theory models to be phenomenologically viable. We review the strong analogy in the physics and the methods used for describing non-supersymmetric flux vacua and non-supersymmetric black holes in string theory. We also show how the polarized state could be the key to describing a well-behaved back-reaction of anti-branes in flux backgrounds, shedding a new light on a recent debate in the literature.

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arXiv2015

The many faces of brane-flux annihilation

Fluxes can decay via the nucleation of Brown-Teitelboim bubbles, but when the decaying fluxes induce D-brane charges this process must be accompanied with an annihilation of D-branes. This occurs via dynamics inside the bubble wall as was well described for (anti-)D3 branes branes annihilating against 3-form fluxes. In this paper we extend this to the other Dp branes with p smaller than seven. Generically there are two decay channels: one for the RR flux and one for the NSNS flux. The RR channel is accompanied by brane annihilation that can be understood from the Dp branes polarising into D(p+2) branes, whereas the NSNS channel corresponds to Dp branes polarising into NS5 branes or KK5 branes. We illustrate this with the decay of antibranes probing local toroidal throat geometries obtained from T-duality of the D6 solution in massive type IIA. We show that anti-Dp branes are metastable against annihilation in these backgrounds, at least at the probe level.

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arXiv2015

Smeared antibranes polarise in AdS

In the recent literature it has been questioned whether the local backreaction of antibranes in flux throats can induce a perturbative brane-flux decay. Most evidence for this can be gathered for D6 branes and Dp branes smeared over 6-p compact directions, in line with the absence of finite temperature solutions for these cases. The solutions in the literature have flat worldvolume geometries and non-compact transversal spaces. In this paper we consider what happens when the worldvolume is AdS and the transversal space is compact. We show that in these circumstances brane polarisation smoothens out the flux singularity, which is an indication that brane-flux decay is prevented. This is consistent with the fact that the cosmological constant would be less negative after brane-flux decay. Our results extend recent results on AdS_7 solutions from D6 branes to AdS_(p+1) solutions from Dp branes. We show that supersymmetry of the AdS solutions depend on p non-trivially.

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arXiv2014

Fatal attraction: more on decaying anti-branes

We elaborate on the decay of branes inside throat geometries that are supported by flux carrying charges opposite to the brane. Our main point is that such backgrounds necessarily have a local, possibly diverging, pile up of brane-charges dissolved in flux around the anti-brane due to the (fatal) attraction of the flux towards the brane. We explain that this causes enhanced brane-flux annihilation and is in tension with the idea that anti-branes can be used to construct meta-stable vacua. We argue that stable configurations -- if they at all exist -- are not obtainable within SUGR. The problem we point out is already present when the back-reaction is confined in the IR and the associated uplift energy small. Our results are valid in the regime that is complementary to a recent analysis of Bena et. al.

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arXiv2014

Non-SUSY fractional branes

We consider a simplified Ansatz for supergravity solutions describing fractional p-brane solutions (throat geometries supported by fluxes) for various p. For p=3 the Ansatz captures the Klebanov-Tseytlin (KT) solution. The equations of motion can be derived from an effective action by performing a dimensional reduction to a flat domain wall geometry in p+2 dimensions. We find an interesting deformation of the known superpotential defining the SUSY domain wall flow. The deformation parameter breaks supersymmetry but still preserves the property that a test Dp brane feels no force inside the throat. The new solutions come in two classes. Both classes have the same UV asymptotics as the KT solution and one class has also similar IR behavior, which makes them potentially interesting holographic backgrounds for studying cascading gauge theories with broken SUSY. We explain furthermore how the curved domain wall solutions of the same (p+2)-dimensional theories are expected to lift to new AdS compactifications of type IIA/B supergravity.

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arXiv2014

A note on smeared branes in flux vacua and gauged supergravity

In the known examples of flux vacua with calibrated spacetime-filling sources (branes or orientifold planes), one can smear the source in order to perform a standard KK reduction and obtain a lower-dimensional supergravity description. Furthermore, it is expected that the smeared and localized solution preserve equal amounts of supersymmetry. In this note we point out that the $\mathrm{AdS}_7$ solution discussed in arXiv:1111.2605 and arXiv:1309.2949 is a counterexample to this common lore. The solution is supersymmetric when the spacetime-filling D6-branes are localized but breaks supersymmetry in the smeared limit. By using the embedding tensor formalism we demonstrate that there is no gauged supergravity description for the solution, regardless of the source being smeared or not. We conjecture that for flux solutions with separation between the KK scale and the AdS radius this cannot occur.

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arXiv2013

BPS domain walls from backreacted orientifolds

Compactifications with D-brane and orientifold sources lead to standard gauged supergravity theories if the sources are smeared over the internal directions. It is therefore of interest to find how the solutions described by the gauged supergravity are altered by properly localising the sources. In this paper we analyse this for BPS domain wall solutions in the seven-dimensional gauged supergravity obtained from an O6 toroidal orientifold compactification in massive IIA supergravity. This is one of the simplest no-scale supergravities that can be constructed and analysed in full detail. We find and discuss the BPS domain walls both when the O6 planes are smeared and localised. When the O6 planes are localised the domain wall solutions live in a warped compactification. In order to get explicit expressions we also consider the non-compact versions of the solutions for which the O6 planes have been traded for D6 branes. Through T-duality we obtain partially localised solutions for compactifications to four dimensions using O3 planes with 3-form fluxes.

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