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Title: Does string theory have controlled metastable de Sitter vacua
Plain: Our universe has a small positive vacuum energy. Whether string theory has a calculable solution of this kind that lives long enough is disputed.
Precise: Determine whether there exist solutions of string theory, with $\alpha'$ and $g_s$ corrections under control, whose 4D effective potential has a local minimum with $V > 0$ and lifetime longer than the Hubble time, such as KKLT or Large Volume Scenario constructions in type IIB orientifolds with anti-D3-brane uplift.
Settled by: An explicit compactification with all corrections shown to be parametrically small, or a no-go theorem covering the controlled regimes.
Kind: well-posed
Answer type: yes-no
References: (empty)
Literature status: contested
Status note: McAllister, Moritz, Nally and Schachner (2024) constructed explicit candidate KKLT de Sitter vacua at leading order in $\alpha'$ and $g_s$; control of higher corrections is disputed.
Posed since: 2003