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EFT & Species Scale: Friends or foes?

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arxiv 2501.08230 v3 pith:7APGTGV3 submitted 2025-01-14 hep-th

EFT & Species Scale: Friends or foes?

classification hep-th
keywords scalespeciestowergravityinfinitestatestowerscutting
verification ladder T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal T4 reserved
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Recently the notion that quantum gravity effects could manifest at scales much lower than the Planck scale has seen an intense Swamplandish revival. Dozens of works have explored how the so-called species scale -- at which an effective description of gravity must break down -- relates to String Theory and the Swampland conjectures. In particular, the interplay between this scale and the abundant towers of states becoming lighter in asymptotic regions of moduli spaces has proved to be key in understanding the real scale of quantum gravity. Nevertheless concerns have been raised regarding the validity of using infinite towers of states when estimating this scale within Effective Field Theory and, more precisely, the consistency of cutting the tower part way through in a framework that relies on a clear separation of scales. In this work we take an EFT point-of-view and provide a detailed perturbative derivation of the species scale -- by computing the 1-loop graviton propagator in the presence of many fields -- thereby clarifying common sources of confusion in the literature. Not only do we clarify the setup, assumptions and regimes of validity of the result, but more importantly apply the same methods to an infinite tower of states. We show how each state in the tower contributes to the species scale and how the procedure of counting only ''light fields'' can be compatible with not cutting the tower, thereby maintaining the harmony between infinite towers and EFTs even in the context of the species scale.

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Cited by 6 Pith papers

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

  1. 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...

  2. The CFT Distance Conjecture and Tensionless String Limits in $\mathcal N=2$ Quiver Gauge Theories

    hep-th 2026-01 unverdicted novelty 7.0

    In N=2 SU quiver theories the large-N Hagedorn temperature depends only on quiver length for linear cases and equals that of N=4 SYM for holographic quivers, with a universal lower bound of 1/sqrt(2) on the exponentia...

  3. Kaluza-Klein tower thresholds and scheme dependence of the species scale

    hep-th 2026-07 accept novelty 6.5

    Leading KK-tower local corrections to four-derivative gravity are regulator-dependent EFT matching data, while log N terms are universal within proper-time cutoffs, so species-scale definitions match only parametrically.

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

  6. Some Properties and Uses of the Species Scale

    hep-th 2026-04 unverdicted novelty 5.0

    The Species Scale implies Laplace eigenvalue equations for BPS-protected Wilson coefficients and produces a one-loop moduli potential with minima at desert points that may stabilize Kähler moduli in 4d Type IIB orientifolds.