Stringy evidence for a universal pattern at infinite distance

Abstract

Abstract Infinite distance limits in the moduli space of a quantum gravity theory are characterized by having infinite towers of states becoming light, as dictated by the Distance Conjecture in the Swampland program. These towers imply a drastic breakdown in the perturbative regimes of the effective field theory at a quantum gravity cut-off scale known as the species scale. In this work, we find a universal pattern satisfied in all known infinite distance limits of string theory compactifications, which relates the variation in field space of the mass of the tower and the species scale: $$ \frac{\overrightarrow{\nabla}m}{m}\cdotp \frac{\overrightarrow{\nabla}{\Lambda}_{\textrm{sp}}}{\Lambda_{\textrm{sp}}}=\frac{1}{d-2} $$ ∇ → m m · ∇ → Λ sp Λ sp = 1 d − 2 in d spacetime dimensions. This implies a more precise definition of the Distance conjecture and sharp bounds for the exponential decay rates. We provide plethora of evidence in string theory in diverse dimensions and with different levels of supersymmetry, and identify some sufficient conditions that allow the pattern to hold from a bottom-up perspective.