Trans-Planckian Censorship and the Swampland

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a new Swampland condition, the Trans-Planckian Censorship Conjecture (TCC), based on the idea that in a consistent quantum theory of gravity sub-Planckian quantum fluctuations should remain quantum and never become larger than the Hubble horizon and freeze in an expanding universe. Applied to the case of scalar fields, it leads to conditions that are similar to the refined dS Swampland conjecture. For large field ranges, TCC is stronger than the dS Swampland conjecture but it is weaker for small field ranges. In particular for asymptotic regions of field space, TCC leads to a bound |V′|≥2(d−1)(d−2)V, which is consistent with all known cases in string theory. Like the dS Swampland conjecture, the TCC forbids long-lived meta-stable dS spaces, but it does allow sufficiently short-lived ones.