Comments on the Transplanckian Censorship Conjecture

TL;DR

This paper discusses the Transplanckian Censorship Conjecture, analyzing the lifetime limits of quintessence states in quantum gravity, and suggests such states may have very long lifetimes due to tunneling and string theory considerations.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of the implications of the Transplanckian Censorship Conjecture for quintessence states and their potential long lifetimes in string theory.

Findings

Lifetimes of quintessence states can be parametrically large.

Tunneling effects may extend the lifetime of these states.

String theory may naturally produce long-lived quintessence potentials.

Abstract

We consider some aspects of the Transplanckian Censorship Conjecture, which states that for theories of quantum gravity which yield a quintessence universe, there is a limit on the lifetime of the state not too different than the current Hubble horizon. We consider some aspects of tunneling in the presence of time-varying fields, and note that lifetimes can be parameterically quite large. We consider what it might mean to find a quintessence potential in string theory, and argue that such states are likely to have very long lifetimes.