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(25.06.) Large-field inflation in string theory? — Evading no-go- theorems from the Weak Gravity Conjecture

Lukas Witkowski (Heidelberg)

25.06.2015 at 14:15 

Promising approaches to large-field inflation from string theory are difficult to construct, even at a superficial level. The simplest constructions fail and one requires technically involved models which face many challenges from data as well as from the model building side. Could it thus be that these difficulties are a sign that string theory does not admit large-field inflation? Indeed, recently it was argued that the Weak Gravity Conjecture — a folk theorem about consistent theories of Quantum Gravity — is in conflict with a large class of inflation models from string theory. In this talk I want to review this conjecture and explain its significance for large-field inflation from string theory. Interestingly, the conjecture leaves a loophole for large-field inflation and I will explore to what extent string theory can exploit this loophole.

Arnold Sommerfeld Center
Theresienstrasse 37
Room 449