Stefano Lanza (DESY)

Uplifts in the Penumbra: Features of the Moduli Potential away from Infinite-Distance Boundaries
One of the most compelling questions of string phenomenology is how to find viable inflationary models stemming from string theory. Some of the recently proposed Swampland criteria impose severe constraints on both the realization of the inflationary scenarios and the very existence of metastable de Sitter vacua in stringy effective theories. However, while evidence suggests the scarcity of effective theories supporting inflation in strict asymptotic regions of the moduli space, little is known about inflationary scenarios that could be hosted in regions stretching toward the bulk of the moduli space. In this talk, focusing on the complex structure moduli of type IIB string theory compactified over Calabi-Yau three-folds, I will present evidence for the existence of uplifting vacua in the cross-over region between the interior of the moduli space and its strictly asymptotic regions. Moreover, I will show the existence of long-range axion valleys which, while not yet supporting slow-roll inflation, do show a flattened scalar potential. I will further illustrate how such regions hosting axion valleys may be obtained by using machine learning techniques.