2017/08/31 by Arthur Hebecker, Philipp Henkenjohann, Lukas T. Witkowski · 4 citations
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Axion #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Conjecture #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #Dark matter #Geodesic #Inflation (cosmology) #Mathematical analysis #Mathematics #Modular equation #Moduli #Moduli of algebraic curves #Moduli space #Monodromy #Particle physics #Physics #Pure mathematics #Quantum mechanics #Space (punctuation) #String theory #Theoretical physics #hep-ph #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1007/jhep12(2017)033
35 pages, 10 figures; v3: references added, new section added
openalex publication_date 2017/12/01 · arxiv created 2018/02/28 · arxiv updated 2018/03/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We investigate how super-Planckian axions can arise when type IIB 3-form flux is used to restrict a two-axion field space to a one-dimensional winding trajectory. If one does not attempt to address notoriously complicated issues like Kähler moduli stabilization, SUSY-breaking and inflation, this can be done very explicitly. We show that the presence of flux generates flat monodromies in the moduli space which we therefore call ‘Monodromic Moduli Space’. While we do indeed find long axionic trajectories, these are non-geodesic. Moreover, the length of geodesics remains highly constrained, in spite of the (finite) monodromy group introduced by the flux. We attempt to formulate this in terms of a ‘Moduli Space Size Conjecture’. Interesting mathematical structures arise in that the relevant spaces turn out to be fundamental domains of congruence subgroups of the modular group. In addition, new perspectives on inflation in string theory emerge.