Fermions and the Swampland
Eran Palti
Abstract
In this note we consider whether there could be Swampland constraints associated to the presence of fermions in the theory. We propose that any fermion must couple to an infinite tower of states, and that the mass scale of this tower, in Planck units, is set by the strength of the Yukawa coupling to the tower. This is a type of fermionic version of the (magnetic) Weak Gravity Conjecture. We also find that supersymmetry plays a natural part in this fermionic realisation, which motivates a further proposal that supersymmetry can only be broken below the scale set by this Yukawa coupling. We perform some preliminary checks in string theory of these ideas.
Topics & Concepts
Yukawa potentialPhysicsFermionSupersymmetryTowerString theoryTheoretical physicsParticle physicsString (physics)EngineeringCivil engineeringBlack Holes and Theoretical PhysicsNoncommutative and Quantum Gravity TheoriesCosmology and Gravitation Theories