The Schedule

Tom Rudelius

Title: Co-Scaling and Alignment of Electric and Magnetic Towers

Abstract: Towers of electrically and magnetically charged states in quantum gravity

often exhibit two important properties. First, the ratio of the mass (or

tension) of electrically charged states to magnetically charged states is of

order e^2, which we refer to as "co-scaling." Second, in theories of

multiple gauge fields, the towers of states that exhibit co-scaling have

charges that point in approximately the same direction in charge space (as

measured by the gauge kinetic matrix), which we refer to as "alignment." In this talk, I will provide heuristic arguments for co-scaling and alignment and present concrete examples of them in the 5d M-theory landscape. I will briefly comment on implications for mathematics and phenomenology.

Timo Weigand

Title: Geometric insights into complex structure limits and the Emergent String Conjecture

Abstract: We use explicitly geometric information on complex structure limits in Type IIB string compactifications to test the Emergent String Conjecture. A candidate for emergent string limits are the so-called type II limits in complex structure moduli space. From a geometric point of view, the Calabi-Yau splits into two (or more) components intersecting over K3 or abelian surfaces. By combining insights both from the algebraic and, as a new ingredient, the geometric mixed Hodge structures, we establish the presence of a critical string that becomes tensionless in the degeneration limit. We furthermore identify a class of 3-cycles whose BPS indices give rise to an accompanying tower of KK or winding modes. Generalising these observations leads to several new conjectures constraining the possible types of type II degenerations of Calabi-Yau threefolds as well as for the modular properties of the BPS indices for the leading towers of BPS states. 

Andrianna Makridou

Title: Can dynamical cobordism place exotic string theories in the Swampland?

Abstract: The Cobordism Conjecture has proven to be a very powerful tool in a swampland ranger’s toolkit, offering insights into theories that are otherwise difficult to access — such as those that are strongly coupled or lack supersymmetry. In this talk, I will argue that Dynamical Cobordism, a postulated spacetime manifestation of the Cobordism Conjecture, can be used to quantitatively check the UV-validity of theories with (possibly naked) curvature singularities at finite spacetime distances. I will use this method to examine whether Hull’s exotic string theories have a place in the Quantum Gravity Landscape.

Georges Obied

Title: 

Abstract: 

David Andriot

Title: Realistic quintessence and the swampland

Abstract: Recent cosmological observations suggest that dark energy could be dynamical, as e.g. realised in quintessence models. In this talk, we will present results obtained on thawing quintessence models, that include the case of an exponential potential. We will compare their realistic quintessence solutions to swampland constraints (distance and de Sitter conjectures) as well as to observational ones. Most of these constraints can be reconciled when allowing for a coupling to matter, including the appearance of a phantom regime.

Armin Shayeghi

Title: ISLE in the Swampland

Abstract: One of the biggest challenges in fundamental physics is to understand how gravity fits into the quantum world. Compared to the other fundamental forces, gravity is extremely weak—a fact that not only poses a deep theoretical puzzle, but also makes it exceptionally difficult to probe in regimes where quantum effects might emerge. An inverse-square law experiment (ISLE) at micrometer scales offers a unique, model-independent window into possible deviations from classical gravity, with relevance to a wide range of different scenarios, including new scalar fields, and extra dimensions.

I will present our approach to testing gravity at separations down to 10 µm using an actively stabilized torsion pendulum with interferometric readout and precision electrostatic control. Achieving meaningful sensitivity in this regime requires not only pushing the limits of measurement, but also isolating gravity from dominant non-gravitational forces at unprecedented levels. Short-range precision measurements of gravity may therefore be the only experimental probe of this uniquely promising corner of the quantum gravity landscape—and our experiment, potentially, the ISLE in the Swampland.

Luis Anchordoqui

Title: Astrophysics Probes of the Dark Dimension

Abstract: I will summarize some of the open questions in high energy astrophysics and discuss connections to the dark dimension, an innovative scenario that has a compact space with characteristic length-scale in the micron range.

Timm Wrase

Title: New results for Moduli Stabilization

Abstract: I will show how compactifications on non-Ricci flat manifolds generically do not allow for scale separation and thereby prevent the existence of lower dimensional effective field theories. This is consistent with previous results that forbid scale separation but might also open new avenues to explore in the AdS/CFT context. Then I will review Landau-Ginzburg models that allow us to study moduli stabilization at strong coupling in the interior of moduli space. In these models one can find 4d, N=1 Minkowski vacua without massless scalar fields as well as violations of the refined tadpole conjecture.

Ida Zadeh

Title: Asymmetric Orbifolds, Rank Reduction and Heterotic Islands

Abstract: In this talk I will discuss asymmetric orbifolds and will focus on their application to toroidal compactifications of heterotic string theory. I will consider theories in 6 and 4 dimensions with 16 supercharges and reduced rank. I will present a novel formalism, based on the Leech lattice, to construct ‘islands’ without vector multiplets.

Hector Parra de Freitas

Title: Rank reduction and 4D S-duality

Abstract: Every known string vacuum with 16 supercharges in six or more dimensions is known to arise from a formal map acting on maximal rank vacua (e.g. heterotic on T^n). I'll explain how these maps arise by compactifying on a second torus down to four dimensions, turning on a flat gauge flux and taking the strong coupling limit. This procedure works by construction in 9 to 5 dimensions, pointing towards a frame independent organizing principle for string vacua in this regime.

Hee-Cheol Kim

Title: Finite Landscape of 6d N=(1,0) Supergravity

Abstract: I will present a bottom-up argument proving that the number of massless fields in any sixh-dimensional supergravity theory with eight supercharges is bounded. From this, I will derive sharp bounds: tensor multiplets satisfy T <= 193 and the gauge algebra rank is at most 480. Also, I will show that the tensor base structures agree precisely with those arising from allowed F-theory bases. These findings support both the finiteness of the 6d supergravity landscape and the string lamppost principle.