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1. 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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2. Small cosmological constants in string theory

   https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP12(2021)136  

   Demirtas, Mehmet; Kim, Manki; McAllister, Liam; Moritz, Jakob; Rios-Tascon, Andres (December 2021, Journal of High Energy Physics)

   A bstract We construct supersymmetric AdS 4 vacua of type IIB string theory in compactifications on orientifolds of Calabi-Yau threefold hypersurfaces. We first find explicit orientifolds and quantized fluxes for which the superpotential takes the form proposed by Kachru, Kallosh, Linde, and Trivedi. Given very mild assumptions on the numerical values of the Pfaffians, these compactifications admit vacua in which all moduli are stabilized at weak string coupling. By computing high-degree Gopakumar-Vafa invariants we give strong evidence that the α ′ expansion is likewise well-controlled. We find extremely small cosmological constants, with magnitude < 10 − 123 in Planck units. The compactifications are large, but not exponentially so, and hence these vacua manifest hierarchical scale-separation, with the AdS length exceeding the Kaluza-Klein length by a factor of a googol. 

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3. Stabilizing massless fields with fluxes in Landau-Ginzburg models

   https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP08(2024)069  

   Becker, Katrin; Rajaguru, Muthusamy; Sengupta, Anindya; Walcher, Johannes; Wrase, Timm (August 2024, Journal of High Energy Physics)

   A<sc>bstract</sc> Recent work on flux compactifications suggests that the tadpole constraint generically allows only a limited number of complex structure moduli to become massive, i.e., be stabilized at quadratic order in the spacetime superpotential. We study the effects of higher-order terms systematically around the Fermat point in the 1⁹Landau-Ginzburg model. This model lives at strong coupling and features no Kähler moduli. We show that indeed massless fields can be stabilized in this fashion. We observe that, depending on the flux, this mechanism is more effective when the number of initially massless fields is large. These findings are compatible with both the tadpole conjecture and the massless Minkowski conjecture. Along the way, we complete the classification of integral flux vectors with small tadpole contribution. Thereby we are closing in on a future complete understanding of all possible flux configurations in the 1⁹Landau-Ginzburg model. 

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4. 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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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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