Bubbles of Nothing in Flux Compactifications

TL;DR

This paper constructs a flux-stabilized AdS_4 x S^1 compactification and demonstrates an instability via bubble of nothing nucleation, involving complex scalar fields and flux stabilization mechanisms.

Contribution

It presents a new explicit construction of a bubble of nothing in flux compactifications with complex scalar fields stabilizing the extra dimension.

Findings

Bubble of nothing nucleation occurs when the extra dimension degenerates.

The bubble surface is charged under the axionic part of the scalar.

The geometry resembles a de Sitter topological defect.

Abstract

We construct a simple AdS_4 x S^1 flux compactification stabilized by a complex scalar field winding the extra dimension and demonstrate an instability via nucleation of a bubble of nothing. This occurs when the Kaluza -- Klein dimension degenerates to a point, defining the bubble surface. Because the extra dimension is stabilized by a flux, the bubble surface must be charged, in this case under the axionic part of the complex scalar. This smooth geometry can be seen as a de Sitter topological defect with asymptotic behavior identical to the pure compactification. We discuss how a similar construction can be implemented in more general Freund -- Rubin compactifications.