Sharpening the Distance Conjecture in Diverse Dimensions

Speaker: Tom Rudelius, UC Berkeley

Date: February 20, 2023

Time: 4:00 pm

Location: IFS Seminar Room, 472 Willamette Hall

Abstract: The Distance Conjecture holds that any infinite-distance limit in the scalar field moduli space of a consistent theory of quantum gravity must be accompanied by a tower of light particles whose masses scale exponentially with proper field distance $||\phi||$ as $m \sim \exp(- \lambda ||\phi||)$, where $\lambda$ is order-one in Planck units. While the evidence for this conjecture is formidable, there is at present no consensus on which values of $\lambda$ are allowed. In this talk, I will propose a sharp lower bound on $\lambda$ in $d$ spacetime dimensions: $\lambda \geq 1/\sqrt{d-2}$. I will provide several lines of evidence for this bound and discuss its implications for scalar field potentials and cosmology

Host: Pouya Asadi