de Sitter vacua in string theory

TLDR

The study begins with highly warped IIB compactifications featuring nontrivial NS and RR three‑form fluxes. The paper aims to construct metastable de Sitter vacua in type IIB string theory. The construction uses corrections to the superpotential from Euclidean D‑brane instantons or gaugino condensation to fix all moduli and produce a supersymmetric AdS vacuum, then uplifts it to a metastable de Sitter state by adding a few \(\overline{\mathrm{D}3}\)-branes. The resulting metastable de Sitter vacua have lifetimes far exceeding \(10^{10}\) yr, yet are always shorter than the recurrence time under certain conditions.

Abstract

We outline the construction of metastable de Sitter vacua of type IIB string theory. Our starting point is highly warped IIB compactifications with nontrivial NS and RR three-form fluxes. By incorporating known corrections to the superpotential from Euclidean D-brane instantons or gaugino condensation, one can make models with all moduli fixed, yielding a supersymmetric AdS vacuum. Inclusion of a small number of $\overline{\mathrm{D}3}$-branes in the resulting warped geometry allows one to uplift the AdS minimum and make it a metastable de Sitter ground state. The lifetime of our metastable de Sitter vacua is much greater than the cosmological time scale of ${10}^{10}\mathrm{yr}.$ We also prove, under certain conditions, that the lifetime of dS space in string theory will always be shorter than the recurrence time.