Super-Planckian spatial field variations and quantum gravity

• Verfasst von: Kläwer, Daniel [VerfasserIn]
• Verfasst von: Palti, Eran [VerfasserIn]
• Titel: Super-Planckian spatial field variations and quantum gravity
• Verf.angabe: Daniel Klaewer and Eran Palti
• E-Jahr: 2017
• Jahr: 20 January 2017
• Umfang: 20 S.
• Fussnoten: Gesehen am 18.10.2018
• Titel Quelle: Enthalten in: Journal of high energy physics
• Ort Quelle: Berlin : Springer, 1997
• Jahr Quelle: 2017
• Band/Heft Quelle: (2017), Artikel-ID 88, Seite 1-20
• ISSN Quelle: 1029-8479
• DOI: doi:10.1007/JHEP01(2017)088
• Datenträger: Online-Ressource
• Sprache: eng
• Sach-SW: Black Holes
• Sach-SW: Effective field theories
• Sach-SW: Models of Quantum Gravity
• Sach-SW: Superstring Vacua
• K10plus-PPN: 1582070385

Abstract

We study scenarios where a scalar field has a spatially varying vacuum expectation value such that the total field variation is super-Planckian. We focus on the case where the scalar field controls the coupling of a U(1) gauge field, which allows us to apply the Weak Gravity Conjecture to such configurations. We show that this leads to evidence for a conjectured property of quantum gravity that as a scalar field variation in field space asymptotes to infinity there must exist an infinite tower of states whose mass decreases as an exponential function of the scalar field variation. We determine the rate at which the mass of the states reaches this exponential behaviour showing that it occurs quickly after the field variation passes the Planck scale.