Geodesic completeness from string T-duality

TL;DR

This paper investigates how string T-duality modifies gravitational behavior at short scales, showing a screening effect that prevents singularities and suggests gravity's attractive nature is only valid at low energies.

Contribution

It introduces a novel analysis of geodesic behavior under T-duality, revealing a screening effect that alters classical gravitational predictions.

Findings

Gravity is screened at short distances, preventing singularities.

The attractive nature of gravity is a low-energy phenomenon.

T-duality leads to modifications in the Raychaudhuri equation.

Abstract

By studying the Raychaudhuri equation for the gravitational force resulting from a string T-duality modified propagator, we present an analysis of the geodesic compression beyond the conventional classical limit. The result is that gravity on short length scales is subject to a screening effect similar to the Debye screening in electrostatics, which prevents the formation of curvature singularities. Using model-independent arguments, we conclude that the conventional attractive nature of gravity is only a low-energy effect.