Candidate de Sitter Vacua

TL;DR

This paper constructs explicit type IIB string theory compactifications that produce metastable de Sitter vacua with stabilized moduli, incorporating fluxes, nonperturbative effects, and anti-D3-branes, laying groundwork for future studies.

Contribution

It provides explicit examples of de Sitter vacua in string theory with detailed flux and moduli stabilization, addressing previous challenges in constructing such vacua.

Findings

Explicit Calabi-Yau orientifold examples with fluxes

Metastable de Sitter vacua with all moduli stabilized

Framework for analyzing subleading corrections and quantization

Abstract

We construct compactifications of type IIB string theory that yield, at leading order in the $\alpha^\prime$ and $g_s$ expansions, de Sitter vacua of the form envisioned by Kachru, Kallosh, Linde, and Trivedi. We specify explicit Calabi-Yau orientifolds and quantized fluxes for which we derive the four-dimensional effective supergravity theories, incorporating the exact flux superpotential, the nonperturbative superpotential from Euclidean D3-branes, and the K\"ahler potential at tree level in the string loop expansion but to all orders in $\alpha'$. Each example includes a Klebanov-Strassler throat region containing a single anti-D3-brane, whose supersymmetry-breaking energy, computed at leading order in $\alpha'$, causes an uplift to a metastable de Sitter vacuum in which all moduli are stabilized. Finding vacua that demonstrably survive subleading corrections, and in which the quantization conditions are completely understood, is an important open problem for which this work has prepared the foundations.