PIRSA:16100053

Inflation, Quantum Gravity, and the Weak Gravity Conjecture

Heidenreich, B. (2016). Inflation, Quantum Gravity, and the Weak Gravity Conjecture. Perimeter Institute. https://pirsa.org/16100053

Heidenreich, Ben. Inflation, Quantum Gravity, and the Weak Gravity Conjecture. Perimeter Institute, Oct. 11, 2016, https://pirsa.org/16100053 

          @misc{ pirsa_PIRSA:16100053,
            doi = {10.48660/16100053},
            url = {https://pirsa.org/16100053},
            author = {Heidenreich, Ben},
            keywords = {Particle Physics},
            language = {en},
            title = {Inflation, Quantum Gravity, and the Weak Gravity Conjecture},
            publisher = {Perimeter Institute},
            year = {2016},
            month = {oct},
            note = {PIRSA:16100053 see, \url{https://pirsa.org}}
          }

Ben Heidenreich University of Massachusetts Amherst

DOI 10.48660/16100053
Collection
Talk Type Scientific Series
Subject

Abstract

Lack of fine tuning in effective field theory does not ensure that a particular scenario is natural or even realizable in a UV complete theory of quantum gravity. Large field axion inflation appears natural from the effective field theory perspective, but I argue that it is tuned from a quantum gravity perspective. The argument is based on the Weak Gravity Conjecture (WGC), a conjectural universal feature of quantum gravity that is present in all known string theory examples. In the process, I highlight recent progress in understanding the WGC and related conjectures about the charged spectrum of quantum gravity and discuss other potential applications, both formal and phenomenological.