Townsend PK. Aether, dark energy and string compactifications.
PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. SERIES A, MATHEMATICAL, PHYSICAL, AND ENGINEERING SCIENCES 2022;
380:20210185. [PMID:
35785979 PMCID:
PMC9251484 DOI:
10.1098/rsta.2021.0185]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/16/2021] [Accepted: 09/09/2021] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
The nineteenth-century aether died with special relativity but was resurrected by general relativity in the form of dark energy; a tensile material with tension equal to its energy density. Such a material is provided by the D-branes of string-theory; these can support the fields of supersymmetric particle-physics, although their energy density is cancelled by orientifold singularities upon compactification. Dark energy can still arise from supersymmetry-breaking anti-D-branes but it is probably time-dependent. Recent results on time-dependent compactifications to an FLRW universe with late-time accelerated expansion are reviewed. This article is part of the theme issue 'The future of mathematical cosmology, Volume 2'.
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