de Sitter decay through goldstino evaporation

TL;DR

This paper explores a decay mechanism in de Sitter supergravity driven by goldstino evaporation, linking it to brane dynamics and implications for the stability of KKLT vacua within the swampland framework.

Contribution

It introduces a decay process via goldstino evaporation supported by four-form flux, connecting supergravity, brane physics, and swampland conjectures.

Findings

De Sitter vacua can decay through goldstino evaporation.

Existence of super-extremal 2-branes is crucial for decay.

KKLT de Sitter vacua are short-lived according to this mechanism.

Abstract

We study supergravity theories with supersymmetry intrinsically non-linearly realized supported only by four-form flux. We demonstrate that supersymmetry can be restored by the evaporation of the goldstino multiplet. Such procedure requires the existence of a super-extremal 2-brane, in accordance with the WGC, and suggests an imminent decay in de Sitter supergravity, leaving the system to relax in supersymmetric AdS after the transition. In particular, the same decay mechanism also implies that the KKLT de Sitter vacua are short-lived. Our findings thus provide an effective realization of KPV-type of decays within 4D supergravity and in this way may reconcile the nilpotent superfield constructions of de Sitter with some aspects of the swampland program.