3-Form Induced Potentials, Dilaton Stabilization, and Running Moduli

TL;DR

This paper analyzes how 3-form induced potentials in string compactifications influence cosmological evolution, showing they lead to power-law expansion without acceleration, and discusses potential corrections for inflation or quintessence.

Contribution

It demonstrates that exponential potentials from 3-forms result in power-law cosmology and explores how supersymmetry and corrections could enable accelerated expansion.

Findings

Power-law expansion from 3-form potentials

No support for accelerated expansion in the basic model

Corrections may enable inflation or quintessence

Abstract

We study the potential induced by imaginary self-dual 3-forms in compactifications of string theory and the cosmological evolution associated with it. The potential contains exponentials of the volume moduli of the compactification, and we demonstrate that the exponential form of the potential leads to a power law for the scale factor of the universe. This power law does not support accelerated expansion. We explain this result in terms of supersymmetry and comment on corrections to the potential that could lead to inflation or quintessence.