Pith. sign in

REVIEW 19 cited by

The Weak Gravity Conjecture: A Review

Not yet reviewed by Pith; the record is open.

This paper has not been read by Pith yet. Machine review is queued; the pith claim, tier, and objections will appear here once it completes.

SPECIMEN: schema-true, not a live event

T0 review · schema-true

One-sentence machine reading of the paper's core claim.

pith:XXXXXXXX · record.json · timestamp

arxiv 2201.08380 v2 pith:77HTF4OA submitted 2022-01-20 hep-th hep-ph

The Weak Gravity Conjecture: A Review

classification hep-th hep-ph
keywords conjecturegravityargumentsconjecturesreviewgeneralmathematicsphysics
verification ladder T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal T4 reserved
0 comments
read the original abstract

The Weak Gravity Conjecture holds that in a theory of quantum gravity, any gauge force must mediate interactions stronger than gravity for some particles. This statement has surprisingly deep and extensive connections to many different areas of physics and mathematics. Several variations on the basic conjecture have been proposed, including statements that are much stronger but are nonetheless satisfied by all known consistent quantum gravity theories. We review these related conjectures and the evidence for their validity in the string theory landscape. We also review a variety of arguments for these conjectures, which tend to fall into two categories: qualitative arguments which claim the conjecture is plausible based on general principles, and quantitative arguments for various special cases or analogues of the conjecture. We also outline the implications of these conjectures for particle physics, cosmology, general relativity, and mathematics. Finally, we highlight important directions for future research.

discussion (0)

Sign in with ORCID, Apple, or X to comment. Anyone can read and Pith papers without signing in.

Forward citations

Cited by 19 Pith papers

Reviewed papers in the Pith corpus that reference this work. Sorted by Pith novelty score.

  1. Wormholes and the imaginary distance bound

    hep-th 2026-05 conditional novelty 7.0

    Wormhole solutions with imaginary scalars set an Imaginary Distance Bound on analytic continuation of couplings, enforced by stringy effects that coincide with WGC and KSW in special cases.

  2. Positivity of the gravitational path integral implies the axionic weak gravity conjecture

    hep-th 2026-05 unverdicted novelty 7.0

    Positivity of gravitational path integral inner products requires non-perturbative instabilities in axion wormholes that break shift symmetry, implying a sharp axion weak gravity conjecture with precise constants.

  3. Alice in Warpland: KK modes, Warped Compactifications and the Swampland

    hep-th 2026-03 unverdicted novelty 7.0

    In codimension-one warped compactifications with exponential potentials, the KK mass decay rate λ_KK is reduced by warping but still satisfies the Sharpened Distance Conjecture precisely when the higher-dimensional po...

  4. Explicit and covariant formula for thermodynamic volume in extended black hole thermodynamics

    gr-qc 2025-12 unverdicted novelty 7.0

    An explicit covariant formula for thermodynamic volume is derived that universally decomposes into explicit Lagrangian coupling dependence plus dynamical field response contributions.

  5. Non-invertible symmetries in the axiverse, and the imaginary wormholes

    hep-th 2026-06 conditional novelty 6.0

    Imaginary wormholes and the IDB imply that towers of BPS EFT instantons generate infinitely many superpotential terms that break non-invertible axion shift symmetries in N=1 axiverse models.

  6. Bordisms between 9d type IIB supergravities and commutator widths of duality groups

    hep-th 2026-05 unverdicted novelty 6.0

    Proposes a refinement of the Swampland Cobordism Conjecture for Ω1(BG) with duality bundle G, where diverging commutator width of G requires infinitely many duality defects to realize monodromies via gravitational solitons.

  7. Bordisms between 9d type IIB supergravities and commutator widths of duality groups

    hep-th 2026-05 unverdicted novelty 6.0

    Proposes a refinement of the Swampland Cobordism Conjecture for duality groups, arguing that diverging commutator widths necessitate infinitely many duality defects to realize monodromies in 9d supergravity bordisms.

  8. Wormholes and the imaginary distance bound

    hep-th 2026-05 unverdicted novelty 6.0

    Wormhole effects in theories with imaginary massless scalars set an upper limit on analytic continuation of couplings to imaginary values, with string theory examples showing the low-energy theory breaks down at or be...

  9. Bounding axion dark energy

    astro-ph.CO 2026-04 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 d...

  10. Information Metrics and Possible Limitations of Local Information Objectivity in Quantum Gravity

    gr-qc 2025-01 unverdicted novelty 6.0

    Quantum gravity may permit contextual deviations from the Fisher metric, inducing observer-dependent modifications to the Born rule.

  11. Morse-Bott inequalities, Topology Change and Cobordisms to Nothing

    hep-th 2024-10 unverdicted novelty 6.0

    Morse-Bott inequalities yield homology bounds and topology-change counts for generic cobordisms to nothing in string theory compactifications.

  12. ISCOs and the weak gravity conjecture bound in higher derivative theories of gravity

    hep-th 2024-04 unverdicted novelty 6.0

    Derives WGC bound on probe charge-to-mass ratio from positivity of anomalous dimensions in dual CFT for charged particles in higher-derivative AdS black holes, with bound increasing with couplings and ISCOs existing u...

  13. The Minimal High-Quality QCD Axion

    hep-ph 2026-07 conditional novelty 5.5

    A flat-interval 5D U(1) Wilson-line axion with 4D KSVZ/DFSZ anomaly sector supplies exponential quality protection while remaining minimal.

  14. Quantum Gravity Cutoff from Axions: A Type IIB Landscape Study

    hep-th 2026-06 unverdicted novelty 5.0

    The bound Λ_QG ≲ 2π √S f holds for C2 and C4 axions in Type IIB Calabi-Yau compactifications even near Kähler moduli space boundaries where co-scaling fails.

  15. Sharpening the Supersymmetric Axion Weak Gravity Conjecture

    hep-th 2026-05 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.

  16. Extremalization approach to black hole thermodynamics: perturbations around higher-derivative gravities

    gr-qc 2026-01 unverdicted novelty 5.0

    The extremalization approach to black hole thermodynamics extends to perturbations around known higher-derivative gravity backgrounds such as Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet, yielding first-order thermodynamic corrections in bo...

  17. Non-invertible symmetries in the axiverse, and the imaginary wormholes

    hep-th 2026-06 unverdicted novelty 4.0

    Identifies invertible and non-invertible generalized symmetries in axiverse EFTs and argues that wormholes break non-invertible axion symmetries via the Imaginary Distance Bound, implying a distinguished role for towe...

  18. The weak gravity conjecture in perturbative strings

    hep-th 2026-05 unverdicted novelty 3.0

    A summary of a proposed proof that the Weak Gravity Conjecture follows from the structure of perturbative bosonic string theory.

  19. Snowmass White Paper: Generalized Symmetries in Quantum Field Theory and Beyond

    hep-th 2022-05 unverdicted novelty 2.0

    This review summarizes transformative examples of generalized symmetries in QFT and their applications to anomalies and dynamics.