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Theory Seminar (High Energy/Cosmology)

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Membranes, monodromy, and the weak gravity conjecture
Date: Tuesday, December 1st
Time: 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm
Place: 5280 Chamberlin Hall
Speaker: Miguel Montero, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid
Abstract: Instantons coming from the Weak Gravity Conjecture (WGC) often
raise issues with large field inflationary models coming from axions.
These issues are famously absent for monodromic inflationary models, in
which the axion rolls many times its fundamental period. However, a
different version of the WGC, the 3-form WGC, predicts the existence of
membranes which can mediate fast transitions along the axion potential.
I will discuss the validity of the 3-form WGC, how typical monodromy
inflation models are not threatened by membrane-mediated transitions,
and some other details of membrane physics.
Host: Pablo Soler
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