Sommaire:

In theories with compact dimensions, Bubbles of Nothing (BoN) are vacuum decays in which the compactification manifold C shrinks to a point, with the instability expanding at the speed of light and leaving nothing (not even spacetime) behind. The Swampland Cobordism Conjecture predicts spacetime-ending configurations (known as bordisms to nothing) such as these being commonplace in a consistent theory of Quantum Gravity. Most constructions of BoN or more general bordisms to nothing found in the literature feature simple instances of C or singular bordisms, which cannot be approached from the effective field theory. Assuming the solution mediating such decay to nothing is homeomorphic to a smooth description, one can go a step further, and obtain topological properties from those of C. Through the use of Morse-Bott theory, these can be translated into information on the number and types of topology changes the compact manifold experiences as we move towards the tip of the bordism, as well as the location of possible cobordism defects. I will illustrate these results with different examples coming from String Theory and, time permitting, study more complicated arrangements such as BoN collisions. The talk is based on the paper https://arxiv.org/abs/24LF.2CR72.

Pour plus d'informations, merci de contacter Lüst S.