String Theory, Swampland Conjectures and Implications for Inflation and Dark Energy

Robert Brandenberger (McGill)

January 21, 2019

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Abstract: It has recently become clear that there are tight constraints coming from superstring theory on effective field theory toy models which are the basis of the current cosmological paradigm. Toy models which are inconsistent with string theory are said to lie ”in the swampland”. I will discuss the resulting constraints on both early universe and late time cosmology. These indicate that inflationary models lie in the swamp and that Dark Energy cannot be a cosmological constant. Upcoming observations will tightly constrain quintessence models of Dark Energy.