Instanton Resummation and the Weak Gravity Conjecture

TL;DR

This paper develops instanton resummation methods to analyze the Weak Gravity Conjecture's implications for large-field axion inflation, identifying conditions that allow or prevent certain inflation models from satisfying the conjecture.

Contribution

It introduces new resummation techniques for instanton series and explores their implications for the Weak Gravity Conjecture in large-field axion inflation models.

Findings

Sublattice Weak Gravity Conjecture constrains axion fundamental domain volume.

Alignment and clockwork mechanisms can evade the conjecture's constraints.

Some large-field inflation models are compatible with the strongest form of the Weak Gravity Conjecture.

Abstract

We develop methods for resummation of instanton lattice series. Using these tools, we investigate the consequences of the Weak Gravity Conjecture for large-field axion inflation. We find that the Sublattice Weak Gravity Conjecture implies a constraint on the volume of the axion fundamental domain. However, we also identify conditions under which alignment and clockwork constructions, and a new variant of N-flation that we devise, can evade this constraint. We conclude that some classes of low-energy effective theories of large-field axion inflation are consistent with the strongest proposed form of the Weak Gravity Conjecture, while others are not.