{"record":{"author":{"account_ref":null,"orcid":null},"builds_on":[],"content_schema":"pubphys.content.revision/1","content_sha256":"e237e4106f9b3f92a2d4617b8f671de153d3495327d98fb0d44e4d8748eaab07","created":"2026-10-15T23:43:22Z","files":[],"origin":{"assisted_by":[],"kind":"seed"},"parents":["ce59fb6cd812fc05906d0c60a71c75ea22bc686bcf38e7c3ef7010834d98ee7b","e6641b797d5057f66bc634c3f58295efdb8249e29358526e1b211115ed02238e"],"salt":"b5244f38cbf225dce005629ac0e9a46f504911e9913900fe8296297bdfba8d5e","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":"2","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":"e6641b797d5057f66bc634c3f58295efdb8249e29358526e1b211115ed02238e","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":null},"attested":{"attestation":{"batch":null,"client_id":null,"id_token_sha256":null,"kind":"platform"},"record_hash":"e0247a65a42911fd0a6bd88efaecdc51a181483adfe86b89232107b190f24524","schema":"pubphys.attested/1"},"envelope":{"attested_hash":"8504d8e9d459a2dd318ea0baff4ed1c6b310c47cf00057db5cbe757b3a5cd082","platform_signature":{"key_id":"c6afc19b31429869751f06879c75cd64ea92654423d15b44be775bf1310a60da","sig":"8lfyw6cvKmD5CrZ4GKqa-M8UFj2x6epzUh4VXFDwtyKkDJdpIEwJmReao5Iy_ZGrBV46xUkjHRmGLsgUZeDMAg"},"schema":"pubphys.envelope/1"},"record_hash":"e0247a65a42911fd0a6bd88efaecdc51a181483adfe86b89232107b190f24524","leaf_index":3690}