{"record":{"author":{"account_ref":null,"orcid":null},"builds_on":[],"content_schema":"pubphys.content.revision/1","content_sha256":"710a56fd17e436c9c7f1a5637b38a9bb0102cc4b0bd8577d125479d72090ccbd","created":"2026-10-03T07:18:09Z","files":[],"origin":{"assisted_by":[],"kind":"seed"},"parents":["5475cf5dc5b1a72283d26dc95dc6e00d7ea4e00096a7c6492e409a1816eeb011"],"salt":"9372ba1e7758ed6806d2c71de23d5e8869706a5308530feedb7e93f37c9f2598","schema":"pubphys.record/2","site":"pubphys.com","target":null,"type":"revision"},"content":{"answer_type":"yes-no","assisted_by":[],"external_id":"qft.swampland.emergent-strings","kind":"well-posed","literature_status":"partially-resolved","n":"1","parents":[],"plain":"Some parameters of string theory can be pushed infinitely far, and then a tower of particles becomes very light. A conjecture says the light tower is always either extra dimensions opening up or a new weakly interacting string, with no third option.","posed_since":"2019","precise":"Emergent string conjecture (Lee, Lerche, Weigand 2019): in any infinite-distance limit in the moduli space of a d-dimensional quantum gravity theory, the leading tower of states becoming massless in Planck units is either a Kaluza-Klein tower (decompactification) or the excitation tower of a unique weakly coupled, asymptotically tensionless critical string. Prove this from general principles or find a limit whose leading tower is of another kind.","problem_ref":null,"references":"","settled_by":"A derivation from black-hole thermodynamics and unitarity valid for every infinite-distance limit, or an explicit compactification with a light leading tower of another kind.","status_note":"Verified in vector-multiplet moduli spaces of M-theory and type IIA on Calabi-Yau threefolds (2019), in 5D supergravity limits (2024), and argued from the black-hole density of states (Bedroya, Mishra, Wiesner 2024); no general proof.","title":"Is every infinite-distance limit a decompactification or a weak string","topic_ref":"21e6e3902bf52f5b90dc25819641c982c2ad6ab4e9dc1db2ec22e07322a801f0"},"attested":{"attestation":{"batch":null,"client_id":null,"id_token_sha256":null,"kind":"platform"},"record_hash":"e6641b797d5057f66bc634c3f58295efdb8249e29358526e1b211115ed02238e","schema":"pubphys.attested/1"},"envelope":{"attested_hash":"5c2eebaac1458c4f8aaf6cdf5a3eab7abf36bad7806ba1a8e3ead99ef7ebf47e","platform_signature":{"key_id":"c6afc19b31429869751f06879c75cd64ea92654423d15b44be775bf1310a60da","sig":"BWUttt3SOprs3HTV5RbN1EB2qk0FBdn1OOo3v71OUacuAFSi_fjynwFCk_O8euclYajmjhHlDmkdTrvLYaduDQ"},"schema":"pubphys.envelope/1"},"record_hash":"e6641b797d5057f66bc634c3f58295efdb8249e29358526e1b211115ed02238e","leaf_index":1961}