[The University of Texas at Austin: What starts here changes the world]
Theory Group
Theory Group Seminar, 29 November 2011


Dr. Timm Wrase, Cornell University

The Wasteland of Random Supergravities

abstract

We show that in a general four-dimensional N=1 supergravity with M >> 1 scalar fields, an exponentially small fraction of the non-supersymmetric critical points are metastable vacua. For a random superpotential and Kaehler potential, we construct a matrix model for the mass matrix and compute the eigenvalue spectrum analytically. We find that in generic configurations a significant fraction of the eigenvalues are negative. We then determine the probability p of a fluctuation in which all the eigenvalues become positive. Strong eigenvalue repulsion makes such a fluctuation extremely unlikely: we find p ~ e^(-c M^q), with q>1. We conclude that in string compactifications in which the superpotential and Kaehler potential are accurately described as random functions, almost all the non-supersymmetric critical points are saddle points and not metastable vacua. Our results have significant implications for the counting of de Sitter vacua in string theory.



This page was last updated on 12 August 2015
Texas Cosmology Center   ♦   Physics Department   ♦   University of Texas at Austin