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arXiv · 1011.6588

Conifolds and Tunneling in the String Landscape

Pontus Ahlqvist·Brian R. Greene·David Kagan·Eugene A. Lim·Saswat Sarangi·I-Sheng Yang
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Abstract

We investigate flux vacua on a variety of one-parameter Calabi-Yau compactifications, and find many examples that are connected through continuous monodromy transformations. For these, we undertake a detailed analysis of the tunneling dynamics and find that tunneling trajectories typically graze the conifold point---particular 3-cycles are forced to contract during such vacuum transitions. Physically, these transitions arise from the competing effects of minimizing the energy for brane nucleation (facilitating a change in flux), versus the energy cost associated with dynamical changes in the periods of certain Calabi-Yau 3-cycles. We find that tunneling only occurs when warping due to back-reaction from the flux through the shrinking cycle is properly taken into account.

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Pontus Ahlqvist, Brian R. Greene, David Kagan, Eugene A. Lim, Saswat Sarangi, I-Sheng Yang. 2011-01-17. Conifolds and Tunneling in the String Landscape. https://doi.org/10.1007/jhep03(2011)119

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