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A bstract Orientifold planes play a crucial role in flux compactifications of string theory, and we demonstrate their deep connection to achieving scale-separated solutions. Specifically, we show that when an orientifold plane contributes at leading order to the non-zero value of the scalar potential, then either the weak coupling limit or the large volume limit implies scale separation, meaning that the Kaluza-Klein tower mass decouples from the inverse length scale of the lower-dimensional theory. Notably, in the supergravity limit such solutions are inherently scale-separated. This result is independent of the spacetime dimension and the dimensionality of the O p -plane as long as p < 7. Similarly, we show, extending previous results, that parametric scale separation is not possible for isotropic compactifications with a leading curvature term that generically arise in the AdS/CFT context. We classify all possible flux compactification setups in both type IIA and type IIB string theory for O p -planes with 2 ≤ p ≤ 6 and present their universal features. While the parametrically controlled scale-separated solutions are all AdS, we also find setups that allow for dS vacua. We prove that flux quantization prevents these dS vacua in isotropic compactifications from arising in a regime of parametric control.

A bstract We explore the possibility that our universe’s current accelerated expansion is explained by a quintessence model with an exponential scalar potential, V = V 0 e −λ ϕ , keeping an eye towards λ ≥ 2 and an open universe, favorable to a string theory realisation and with no cosmological horizon. We work out the full cosmology of the model, including matter, radiation, and optionally negative spatial curvature, for all λ > 0, performing an extensive analysis of the dynamical system and its phase space. The minimal physical requirements of a past epoch of radiation domination and an accelerated expansion today lead to an upper bound λ ≲ 3 , which is driven slightly up in the presence of observationally allowed spatial curvature. Cosmological solutions start universally in a kination epoch, go through radiation and matter dominated phases and enter an epoch of acceleration, which is only transient for λ > 2 . Field distances traversed between BBN and today are sub-Planckian. We discuss possible string theory origins and phenomenological challenges, such as time variation of fundamental constants. We provide theoretical predictions for the model parameters to be fitted to data, most notably the varying dark energy equation of state parameter, in light of recent results from DES-Y5 and DESI.

A bstract AdS flux vacua with a parametric separation between the AdS and KK scales have been conjectured to be in the Swampland. We study flux compactifications of massive IIA supergravity with O6 planes which are claimed to allow moduli-stabilised and scale separated AdS 3 and AdS 4 vacua at arbitrary weak coupling and large volume. A recent refinement of the AdS Distance Conjecture is shown to be inconsistent with this class of AdS 3 vacua because the requisite discrete higher form symmetries are absent. We further perform a tree-level study of non-perturbative decays for the nonsupersymmetric versions of the AdS 3 solutions, and find that the vacua are stable within this approximation. Finally, we provide an initial investigation of the would-be dual CFT 2 s and CFT 3 s. We study roughly a dozen different models and find for all AdS 4 DGKT-type vacua that the dual operators to the lightest scalars have integer dimensions. For the putative CFT 2 dual theories of the AdS 3 vacua we find no integer dimensions for the operators.

A bstract The KKLT construction of dS vacua [1] relies on an uplift term that arises from an anti-D3-brane. It was argued by Kachru, Pearson and Verlinde [2] that this anti-D3-brane is an excited state in a supersymmetric theory since it can decay to a supersymmetric ground state. Hence the anti-D3-brane breaks supersymmetry spontaneously and one should be able to package all the world-volume fields on the anti-D3-brane into a four dimensional N = 1 supersymmetric action. Here we extend previous results and identify the constrained superfields that correspond to all the degrees of freedom on the anti-D3-brane. In particular, we show explicitly that the four 4D worldvolume spinors give rise to constrained chiral multiplets S and Y i , i = 1 , 2 , 3 that satisfy S 2 = SY i = 0. We also conjecture (and provide evidence in a forthcoming publication) that the vector field A μ and the three scalars ϕ i give rise to a field strength multiplet W α and three chiral multiplets H i that satisfy the constraints S W α = D ¯ α ⋅ S H ¯ i = 0 . This is the first time that such constrained multiplets appear in string theory constructions.

A bstract Type IIB flux vacua based on Landau-Ginzburg models without Kähler deformations provide fully-controlled insights into the non-geometric and strongly-coupled string landscape. We show here that supersymmetric flux configurations at the Fermat point of the 1 9 model, which were found long-time ago to saturate the orientifold tadpole, leave a number of massless fields, which however are not all flat directions of the superpotential at higher order. More generally, the rank of the Hessian of the superpotential is compatible with a suitably formulated tadpole conjecture for all fluxes that we found. Moreover, we describe new infinite families of supersymmetric 4d N = 1 Minkowski and AdS vacua and confront them with several other swampland conjectures.

A bstract We discuss the properties of massive type IIA flux compactifications. In particular, we investigate in which case one can obtain dS vacua at large volume and small coupling. We support a general discussion of scaling symmetries with the analysis of a concrete example. We find that the large volume and weak coupling limit requires a large number of O6-planes. Since these are bound for any given compactification space one cannot get arbitrarily good control over α ′ and string loop corrections.

A bstract We find and study 17 new de Sitter solutions of ten-dimensional (10d) type IIB supergravity with intersecting D 5 -branes and orientifold O 5 -planes, as well as a new Minkowski one. These solutions are obtained numerically on 6d group manifolds, the compactness of which is established for 4 of them. We show that all our de Sitter solutions are perturbatively unstable, using a restricted 4d effective theory of four scalar fields. We finally analyse whether our solutions can be promoted to classical string backgrounds. Several of them appear as good candidates, as they satisfy all requirements imposed so far.

A bstract Classical flux compactifications contribute to a well-controlled corner of the string landscape, therefore providing an important testing ground for a variety of conjectures. We focus here on type II supergravity compactifications on 6d group manifolds towards 4d maximally symmetric spacetimes. We develop a code where the truncation to left-invariant scalars and the dimensional reduction to a 4d theory are automated, for any possible configuration of O p -planes and D p -branes. We then prove that any such truncation is consistent. We further compute the mass spectrum and analyse the stability of many de Sitter, Minkowski or anti-de Sitter solutions, as well as their consistency with swampland conjectures.

A bstract In this article we show that finite perturbative corrections in non-supersymmetric strings can be understood via an interplay between modular invariance and misaligned supersymmetry. While modular invariance is known to be crucial in closed-string models, its presence and role for open strings is more subtle. Nevertheless, we argue that it leads to cancellations in physical quantities such as the one-loop cosmological constant and prevents them from diverging. In particular, we show that if the sector-averaged number of states does not grow exponentially, as predicted by misaligned supersymmetry, all exponential divergences in the one-loop cosmological constant cancel out as well. To account for the absence of power-law divergences, instead, we need to resort to the modular structure of the partition function. We finally comment on the presence of misaligned supersymmetry in the known 10-dimensional tachyon-free non-supersymmetric string theories.

A bstract Extending the work of Ferrara and one of the authors [1], we present dynamical cosmological models of α-attractors with plateau potentials for 3 α = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. These models are motivated by geometric properties of maximally supersymmetric theories: M-theory, superstring theory, and maximal N = 8 supergravity. After a consistent truncation of maximal to minimal supersymmetry in a seven-disk geometry, we perform a two-step procedure: 1) we introduce a superpotential, which stabilizes the moduli of the seven-disk geometry in a supersymmetric minimum, 2) we add a cosmological sector with a nilpotent stabilizer, which breaks supersymmetry spontaneously and leads to a desirable class of cosmological attractor models. These models with n s consistent with observational data, and with tensor-to-scalar ratio r ≈ 10 −2 − 10 −3 , provide natural targets for future B-mode searches. We relate the issue of stability of inflationary trajectories in these models to tessellations of a hyperbolic geometry.