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1. Scale separation from O-planes

   https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP08(2025)073  

   Tringas, George; Wrase, Timm (August 2025, Journal of High Energy Physics)

   A<sc>bstract</sc> Orientifold planes play a crucial role in flux compactifications of string theory, and we demonstrate their deep connection to achieving scale-separated solutions. Specifically, we show that when an orientifold plane contributes at leading order to the non-zero value of the scalar potential, then either the weak coupling limit or the large volume limit implies scale separation, meaning that the Kaluza-Klein tower mass decouples from the inverse length scale of the lower-dimensional theory. Notably, in the supergravity limit such solutions are inherently scale-separated. This result is independent of the spacetime dimension and the dimensionality of the Op-plane as long asp <7. Similarly, we show, extending previous results, that parametric scale separation is not possible for isotropic compactifications with a leading curvature term that generically arise in the AdS/CFT context. We classify all possible flux compactification setups in both type IIA and type IIB string theory for Op-planes with 2 ≤p≤ 6 and present their universal features. While the parametrically controlled scale-separated solutions are all AdS, we also find setups that allow for dS vacua. We prove that flux quantization prevents these dS vacua in isotropic compactifications from arising in a regime of parametric control. 

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2. New non-supersymmetric flux vacua in string theory

   https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP12(2023)145  

   Krippendorf, S; Schachner, A (December 2023, Journal of High Energy Physics)

   A<sc>bstract</sc> In this note we construct large ensembles of supersymmetry breaking solutions arising in the context of flux compactifications of type IIB string theory. This class of solutions was previously proposed in [1] for which we provide the first explicit examples in Calabi-Yau orientifold compactifications with discrete fluxes below their respective tadpole constraint. As a proof of concept, we study the degree 18 hypersurface in weighted projective space$$ \mathbbm{CP} $$ $\mathrm{CP}$_1,1,1,6,9. Furthermore, we look at 10 additional orientifolds withh^1,2= 2,3. We find several flux vacua with hierarchical suppression of the vacuum energy with respect to the gravitino mass. These solutions provide a crucial stepping stone for the construction of explicit de Sitter vacua in string theory. Lastly, we also report the difference in the distribution ofW₀between supersymmetric and non-supersymmetric minima. 

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3. Type IIB flux compactifications with h1,1 = 0

   https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP06(2022)166  

   Bardzell, Jacob; Gonzalo, Eduardo; Rajaguru, Muthusamy; Smith, Danielle; Wrase, Timm (June 2022, Journal of High Energy Physics)

   A bstract We revisit flux compactifications of type IIB string theory on ‘spaces’ dual to rigid Calabi-Yau manifolds. This rather unexplored part of the string landscapes harbors many interesting four-dimensional solutions, namely supersymmetric $$ \mathcal{N} $$ N = 1 Minkowski vacua without flat direction and infinite families of AdS vacua, some potentially with unrestricted rank for the gauge group. We also comment on the existence of metastable dS solutions in this setup. We discuss how these solutions fit into the web of swampland conjectures. 

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4. Comments on classical AdS flux vacua with scale separation

   https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP05(2022)167  

   Apers, Fien; Montero, Miguel; Van Riet, Thomas; Wrase, Timm (May 2022, Journal of High Energy Physics)

   A bstract AdS flux vacua with a parametric separation between the AdS and KK scales have been conjectured to be in the Swampland. We study flux compactifications of massive IIA supergravity with O6 planes which are claimed to allow moduli-stabilised and scale separated AdS 3 and AdS 4 vacua at arbitrary weak coupling and large volume. A recent refinement of the AdS Distance Conjecture is shown to be inconsistent with this class of AdS 3 vacua because the requisite discrete higher form symmetries are absent. We further perform a tree-level study of non-perturbative decays for the nonsupersymmetric versions of the AdS 3 solutions, and find that the vacua are stable within this approximation. Finally, we provide an initial investigation of the would-be dual CFT 2 s and CFT 3 s. We study roughly a dozen different models and find for all AdS 4 DGKT-type vacua that the dual operators to the lightest scalars have integer dimensions. For the putative CFT 2 dual theories of the AdS 3 vacua we find no integer dimensions for the operators. 

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5. Candidate de Sitter vacua

   https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.111.086015  

   McAllister, Liam; Moritz, Jakob; Nally, Richard; Schachner, Andreas (April 2025, Physical Review D)

   We construct compactifications of type IIB string theory that yield, at leading order in the ${\alpha }^{\prime }$and $g_s$expansions, de Sitter vacua of the form envisioned by Kachru We specify explicit Calabi-Yau orientifolds and quantized fluxes for which we derive the four-dimensional effective supergravity theories, incorporating the exact flux superpotential, the nonperturbative superpotential from Euclidean D3-branes, and the Kähler potential at tree level in the string loop expansion but to all orders in ${\alpha }^{\prime }$. Each example includes a Klebanov-Strassler throat region containing a single anti-D3-brane, whose supersymmetry-breaking energy, computed at leading order in ${\alpha }^{\prime }$, causes an uplift to a metastable de Sitter vacuum in which all moduli are stabilized. Finding vacua that demonstrably survive subleading corrections, and in which the quantization conditions are completely understood, is an important open problem for which this work has prepared the foundations. Published by the American Physical Society2025 

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