Reflections on an M-theoretic Emergence Proposal

TL;DR

This paper reviews recent developments in the Emergence Proposal within quantum gravity, suggesting decompactification limits as key to its realization, and connects these ideas with M-theory and the swampland program.

Contribution

It offers a perspective that decompactification, rather than emergent strings, may realize the Emergence Proposal, linking it to M-theory and previous emergence ideas.

Findings

Decompactification limits are natural candidates for the Emergence Proposal.

The Emergence Proposal remains at an exploratory stage with ongoing development.

Connections are made between emergence, M-theory, and the swampland program.

Abstract

In a pedagogical manner, we review recent developments in the investigation of the Emergence Proposal. Although it is fair to say that this idea is still at an exploratory level and a fully coherent picture has yet to be developed, we put it into perspective to previous work on the swampland program and on emergence in QG. In view of the emergent string conjecture, we argue and provide evidence that it is not the emergent string but rather the decompactification limit which is a natural candidate for the potential realization of the Emergence Proposal. This resonates in a compelling way with old ideas of emergence in M(-atrix) theory and gives rise to a number of further speculations.