Pith. sign in

Wormholes and the imaginary distance bound

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

9 Pith papers citing it
abstract

Some of the simplest wormhole solutions involve massless scalar fields that take imaginary values. Massless fields can be interpreted as coupling constants in asymptotically flat or asymptotically AdS gravity theories. We argue that wormhole effects imply an imaginary distance bound, an upper limit for the analytic continuation of the theory to imaginary values of these couplings. In string theory examples, we find explicit effects that render the low-energy theory invalid either before or precisely at this wormhole limit. We argue that the existence of such effects enforcing the distance bound is a general feature of string theories containing wormholes. In some cases, the bounds we discuss coincide with the weak gravity conjecture, and with the Kontsevich-Segal-Witten condition on complex metrics.

citation-role summary

background 3

citation-polarity summary

years

2026 9

roles

background 2

polarities

background 2

representative citing papers

Testing F-theory GUTs with the Axiverse

hep-th · 2026-06-08 · unverdicted · novelty 6.0

In F-theory GUTs, non-universal ALPs induced by hypercharge flux satisfy g_aγ/m_a well below the QCD axion prediction when gauge couplings unify near the string scale.

Sharpening the Supersymmetric Axion Weak Gravity Conjecture

hep-th · 2026-05-21 · unverdicted · novelty 5.0

The paper verifies the bound fS/|n| ≤ (π/(2 κ_d)) sqrt((d-1)/(d-2)) for axion instantons and sharpens it to fS/|n| ≤ (1/κ_4) sqrt(7/2) for supersymmetric 4d instantons using three approaches in the string landscape.

citing papers explorer

Showing 9 of 9 citing papers.