by
Eran Paltin(MAX-PLANCK INSTITUTE FOR PHYSICS, MUNICH)
→
Europe/Stockholm
132:028 (Nordita East)
132:028 (Nordita East)
Description
The Swampland programme aims at distinguishing quantum field
theories which can be completed into quantum gravity in the ultraviolet
from those which cannot. I will outline relations between different
conjectural properties of the Swampland, showing how a coherent picture is
emerging, and discuss a proposal for the microscopic physics underlying
them. I will focus in particular on the Swampland Distance Conjecture
which is concerned with large variations of scalar field expectation
values, physics which often features in theoretical cosmology. I will then
discuss a proposed connection between this conjecture and the Swampland de
Sitter conjecture. The latter gives a lower bound on the gradient of
positive potentials, in particular implying that dark energy must be
varying in time rather than being a cosmological constant. Finally, time
permitting, I will discuss Swampland constraints on massive spin-2 fields.