The role of the Species Scale in Quantum Gravity

by Alberto Castellano (IFT Madrid)

Wednesday 22 Nov 2023, 17:00 → 18:00 Europe/Berlin

Seminar Room 2

There have been numerous recent attempts to elucidate the precise role that the Quantum Gravity (QG) cut-off -- frequently referred to as the Species Scale -- plays within the Swampland context, and more generally when trying to characterize the universality class of IR effective field theories (EFT) that descend from a consistent QG framework. In this talk we will discuss some progress towards the understanding of the Species Scale as the UV cut-off controlling the gravitational EFT expansion, by a careful inspection of several supersymmetric String Theory constructions. Along the way, we will also point out an intriguing pattern that such gravitational energy scale seems to fulfill in all known infinite distance/weak coupling corners. Interestingly, together with the knowledge of the leading tower of states becoming light asymptotically at every such infinite distance point, this pattern is enough to uniquely determine the global structure of dualities and phases for any QG theory under consideration.