Candidate de Sitter Vacua

Abstract

We construct compactifications of type IIB string theory that yield, at leading order in the $\alpha^\prime$ and $g_s$ expansions, de Sitter vacua of the form envisioned by Kachru, Kallosh, Linde, and Trivedi. We specify explicit Calabi-Yau orientifolds and quantized fluxes for which we derive the four-dimensional effective supergravity theories, incorporating the exact flux superpotential, the nonperturbative superpotential from Euclidean D3-branes, and the K\"ahler potential at tree level in the string loop expansion but to all orders in $\alpha'$. Each example includes a Klebanov-Strassler throat region containing a single anti-D3-brane, whose supersymmetry-breaking energy, computed at leading order in $\alpha'$, causes an uplift to a metastable de Sitter vacuum in which all moduli are stabilized. Finding vacua that demonstrably survive subleading corrections, and in which the quantization conditions are completely understood, is an important open problem for which this work has prepared the foundations.