Swampland Seminar

Location: Jefferson Physical Laboratory, Seminar room J356

Speaker: Markus Dierigl (LMU Munich)

Title: IIB Explored – Dualities, Bordisms, and the Swampland

Abstract: In this talk I will discuss the application of the Cobordism Conjecture to type IIB supergravity with non-trivial duality bundle. Calculating the relevant bordism groups we find that they are highly non-trivial and would predict the presence of various global symmetries in the underlying theory. Since quantum gravity theories do not allow for global symmetries, we discuss which defects need to be included to break them completely. Interestingly, we find many backgrounds that are well-known in the F-theory literature, such as [p,q]-7-branes, non-Higgsable clusters, as well as S-folds and their generalizations to higher codimensions. Further including worldsheet reflections, predicts the existence of a new non-supersymmetric 7-brane with interesting properties and applications, which I will discuss in more detail.