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Dark energy from string theory: an introductory review

4 Pith papers cite this work. Polarity classification is still indexing.

4 Pith papers citing it
abstract

Dark energy, the main constituent in our expanding universe, responsible for its acceleration, is currently being observed with unprecedented precision through various experiments. While several cosmological models can fit this latest data, deriving some of them from string theory would provide a valuable theoretical prior, with information on the nature of dark energy. This article reviews the efforts towards such a derivation, namely the options from string theory to get a cosmological constant (a de Sitter solution) or a dynamical dark energy (via a quintessence model). After providing a brief historical perspective, we first review proven or conjectured constraints on obtaining dark energy from string theory, in classical or asymptotic regimes. Circumventing such obstructions, by changing regime or ansatz, one can try to construct a de Sitter solution: we present a long list of such attempts, and the difficulties encountered. Among them, we discuss in detail efforts towards classical de Sitter solutions. Then, we review quintessence from string theory, focusing on single-field exponential models. Related topics are discussed, including the coupling to matter, the comparison to observational data, and the absence of a cosmological event horizon.

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2026 4

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representative citing papers

Bounding axion dark energy

astro-ph.CO · 2026-04-10 · unverdicted · novelty 6.0

An analytic bound on axion parameters in thawing quintessence is derived independently of initial conditions and used with cosmological observations plus quantum gravity constraints to exclude large regions of axion dark energy parameter space.

de Sitter in String Theory vs. Gibbons & Hawking

hep-th · 2026-04-28 · conditional · novelty 5.0

Perturbative string theory forbids de Sitter times closed manifold solutions under the assumption that the Euclidean sphere partition function receives a nonzero 1/G_N contribution.

citing papers explorer

Showing 4 of 4 citing papers.

  • Axion-Scalar Dynamics: from the Distance Conjecture to Cosmic Acceleration hep-th · 2026-05-11 · unverdicted · none · ref 20 · internal anchor

    In type IIB/F-theory models, axion-scalar systems in finite distance limits produce trajectories of infinite length that drive asymptotic cosmic acceleration.

  • Bounding axion dark energy astro-ph.CO · 2026-04-10 · unverdicted · none · ref 22 · internal anchor

    An analytic bound on axion parameters in thawing quintessence is derived independently of initial conditions and used with cosmological observations plus quantum gravity constraints to exclude large regions of axion dark energy parameter space.

  • de Sitter in String Theory vs. Gibbons & Hawking hep-th · 2026-04-28 · conditional · none · ref 23 · internal anchor

    Perturbative string theory forbids de Sitter times closed manifold solutions under the assumption that the Euclidean sphere partition function receives a nonzero 1/G_N contribution.

  • Breaking Free from the Swampland of Impossible Universes through the DESI Portal astro-ph.CO · 2026-05-11 · unverdicted · none · ref 20 · internal anchor

    DESI data indicating evolving dark energy may allow string theory to describe observed universes without violating swampland constraints on constant dark energy.