Paper · Dec 13, 2024

Navigating string theory field space with geometric flows

Saskia Demulder, Dieter Lust, Thomas Raml

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Abstract

The Swampland Distance Conjecture postulates the emergence of an infinite tower of massless states when approaching infinite-distance points in moduli space. However, most string backgrounds are supported by fluxes, and therefore depart from the purely geometric paradigm. This fact requires an extension of the Swampland conjectures to scalar field spaces with non-trivial potentials, rather than just moduli spaces. To address this task, we utilise geometric flows, in particular generalised Ricci flow, to probe the associated scalar field spaces. Considering internal spaces supported by three-form fluxes, we first show that the distance defined in terms of the Perelman entropy functional needs to be refined in order to encompass fluxes. Doing so, we extend the Ricci Flow Conjecture to include Kalb-Ramond flux besides the metric and the dilaton field. This allows us to probe infinite-distance points within these scalar field spaces in a purely geometric way. We subsequently construct a geometric flow for internal manifolds supported by Ramond-Ramond fluxes and discuss its role in the Ricci Flow Conjecture. Our analysis suggests that in the presence of fluxes the Distance Conjecture might be better characterised in terms of a cost function on the space of metrics, rather than a genuine distance.

Comments: 41 pages

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Connected papers

The 8 papers on this site closest to this one, judged by the topics they share, the words and phrases in their titles and abstracts, and their authors. They are not its citations, but a map of the work around it. Papers here go back to 2021, plus the canon.

Connected papers This paper in the centre and the 8 papers closest to it around it, in date order clockwise from the top. The closer a paper sits to the centre, the stronger the connection. This paper Integrability and RG flow in 2d sigma models (Nat Levine, 2021)8Levine 2021 Cobordism, Singularities and the Ricci Flow Conjecture (David Martín Velázquez, Davide De Biasio and Dieter Lust, 2022)2Velázquez 2022 On-Shell Flow (Davide De Biasio, 2022)4De Biasio 2022 Stability and moduli space of generalized Ricci solitons (Kuan-Hui Lee, 2023)6Lee 2023 Geometric flows and the Swampland (Davide De Biasio, 2023)1De Biasio 2023 Monotonicity of RG flow in emergent dual holography of worldsheet nonlinear σ model (Ki-Seok Kim, Arpita Mitra, Debangshu Mukherjee et al., 2024)3Kim 2024 Nonassicative cosmological solitonic R-flux deformations in gauge gravity and G. Perelman geometric flow thermodynamics (L. Bubuianu, J. O. Seti, S. Vacaru et al., 2024)5Bubuianu 2024 The fundamental physical importance of generic off-diagonal solutions and Grigori Perelman entropy in the Einstein gravity theory (Sergiu I. Vacaru and Elşen V. Veliev, 2025)7Vacaru 2025
Closer to the centre: more closely connected. Clockwise from the top: oldest to newest. Ricci flowWider flowsalso connected to each other
  1. Geometric flows and the Swampland

    Davide De Biasio PDF

    Topics Perelman entropy, Physics · Shared terms “Swampland”, “geometric flows”, “scalar field”

  2. Cobordism, Singularities and the Ricci Flow Conjecture

    David Martín Velázquez, Davide De Biasio and Dieter Lust PDF

    Topics Ricci flow · Same author Dieter Lust · Shared terms “Flow Conjecture”, “Distance Conjecture”, “Swampland Distance”

  3. Monotonicity of RG flow in emergent dual holography of worldsheet nonlinear model

    Ki-Seok Kim, Arpita Mitra, Debangshu Mukherjee et al. PDF

    Topics Perelman entropy, Physics · Shared terms “entropy functional”, “string theory”

  4. On-Shell Flow

    Davide De Biasio PDF

    Topics Physics · Shared terms “scalar field”, “Distance Conjecture”, “geometric flows”

  5. Nonassicative cosmological solitonic R-flux deformations in gauge gravity and G. Perelman geometric flow thermodynamics

    L. Bubuianu, J. O. Seti, S. Vacaru et al. PDF

    Topics Perelman entropy, Physics · Shared terms “geometric flows”, “string theory”, “paradigm”

  6. Stability and moduli space of generalized Ricci solitons

    Kuan-Hui Lee PDF

    Topics Perelman entropy, Generalized & G₂ flows · Shared terms “moduli space”

  7. Integrability and RG flow in 2d sigma models

    Nat Levine PDF

    Topics Generalized & G₂ flows, Physics · Shared terms “string theory”

Read around it

Background reading

The guides for the topics of this paper: what each idea is, why it matters, and the papers to read first.

In the guidebook

  1. 12C.9
    After PerelmanBook 12C · Extinction and the Proof

    Singular flows, the Smale conjecture, and Bamler’s theory.

  2. 6A.12
    Entropy, Information and DiffusionBook 6A · The Heat Equation and Its Relatives

    Entropy along the heat flow, the log-Sobolev inequality and Li–Yau: the ancestors of Perelman’s entropy.

  3. 6A.13
    Self-Similar Variables and MonotonicityBook 6A · The Heat Equation and Its Relatives

    Changing variables so that self-similar solutions stand still: convergence to the Gaussian, Giga–Kohn blow-up, Gaussian-weighted monotonicity formulas, frequency functions, and the blow-up logic of Huisken, Struwe and Perelman.