Axion wormholes with massive dilaton

TL;DR

This paper investigates how massive dilatons affect axion wormhole solutions in string-inspired models, revealing corrections near the wormhole neck that align with the weak gravity conjecture, impacting quantum gravity and cosmology.

Contribution

It provides the first analysis of corrections to classical axion wormholes with massive dilatons in string-motivated frameworks, connecting to the weak gravity conjecture.

Findings

Corrections near the wormhole neck are consistent with the weak gravity conjecture.

Massive dilatons modify the classical wormhole solutions in a significant way.

Results have implications for quantum gravity and early universe cosmology.

Abstract

If Euclidean wormholes contribute meaningfully to the path integral of quantum gravity they can have important implications for particle physics and cosmology. The dominant effects arise from wormholes whose sizes are comparable to the cut-off scale of effective field theory, for which ultraviolet corrections become relevant. We study corrections to classical axion wormhole solutions in string motivated scenarios in which the dilaton partner of the axion becomes massive. We find corrections near the neck region which are consistent with a recent version of the weak gravity conjecture for axions.