Transplanckian Censorship and the Local Swampland Distance Conjecture

TL;DR

This paper explores the limits of local effective field theory in probing extreme regions of moduli space, examining instabilities and bounds imposed by quantum gravity principles like the Weak Gravity Conjecture.

Contribution

It introduces a conjecture on bounds for large localized moduli space excursions based on black hole and Kaluza-Klein bubble analyses, connecting to the Swampland Distance Conjecture.

Findings

Rapid pair production instability with charged matter when $q/m\gtrsim 1$

Bound on black hole mass related to moduli displacement, $\log(M_{BH})\gtrsim |\Delta\phi|$

Proposed general bound $|\Delta\phi|\lesssim |\log(R\Lambda)|$ for local excitations

Abstract

The swampland distance conjecture (SDC) addresses the ability of effective field theory to describe distant points in moduli space. It is natural to ask whether there is a local version of the SDC: is it possible to construct local excitations in an EFT that sample extreme regions of moduli space? In many cases such excitations exhibit horizons or instabilities, suggesting that there are bounds on the size and structure of field excitations that can be achieved in EFT. Static bubbles in ordinary Kaluza-Klein theory provide a simple class of examples: the KK radius goes to zero on a smooth surface, locally probing an infinite distance point, and the bubbles are classically unstable against radial perturbations. However, it is also possible to stabilize KK bubbles at the classical level by adding flux. We study the impact of imposing the Weak Gravity Conjecture (WGC) on these solutions, finding that a rapid pair production instability arises in the presence of charged matter with $q/m\gtrsim 1$. We also analyze 4d electrically charged dilatonic black holes. Small curvature at the horizon imposes a bound $\log(M_{BH})\gtrsim |\Delta\phi|$, independent of the WGC, and the bound can be strengthened if the particle satisfying the WGC is sufficiently light. We conjecture that quantum gravity in asymptotically flat space requires a general bound on large localized moduli space excursions of the form $ |\Delta\phi|\lesssim |\log(R\Lambda)|$, where $R$ is the size of the minimal region enclosing the excitation and $\Lambda^{-1}$ is the short-distance cutoff on local EFT. The bound is qualitatively saturated by the dilatonic black holes and Kaluza-Klein monopoles.