Flux Compactification

TL;DR

This paper reviews recent developments in string and M theory compactifications that produce stable, supersymmetry-breaking vacua with small positive cosmological constants, exploring the landscape of possible universes and their observable implications.

Contribution

It summarizes advances in constructing realistic string/M theory vacua with all moduli stabilized and discusses the implications of the string landscape for physics and cosmology.

Findings

Existence of a vast landscape of string/M theory vacua.

Potential observable effects of moduli in cosmology.

Constraints on supersymmetry breaking scales.

Abstract

We review recent work in which compactifications of string and M theory are constructed in which all scalar fields (moduli) are massive, and supersymmetry is broken with a small positive cosmological constant, features needed to reproduce real world physics. We explain how this work implies that there is a ``landscape'' of string/M theory vacua, perhaps containing many candidates for describing real world physics, and present the arguments for and against this idea. We discuss statistical surveys of the landscape, and the prospects for testable consequences of this picture, such as observable effects of moduli, constraints on early cosmology, and predictions for the scale of supersymmetry breaking.