Distance and de Sitter Conjectures on the Swampland

TL;DR

This paper explores the relationship between the distance and de Sitter conjectures in string theory, proposing a refined de Sitter conjecture that avoids previous counterexamples by leveraging Bousso's covariant entropy bound.

Contribution

It establishes a connection between the distance conjecture and a refined de Sitter conjecture, providing a potential resolution to existing counterexamples within string theory.

Findings

Refined de Sitter conjecture evades known counterexamples.

Connection established using Bousso's covariant entropy bound.

Implications for the Dine-Seiberg problem.

Abstract

Among Swampland conditions, the distance conjecture characterizes the geometry of scalar fields and the de Sitter conjecture constrains allowed potentials on it. We point out a connection between the distance conjecture and a refined version of the de Sitter conjecture in any parametrically controlled regime of string theory by using Bousso's covariant entropy bound. The refined version turns out to evade all counter-examples at scalar potential maxima that have been raised. We comment on the relation of our result to the Dine-Seiberg problem.