Effective potentials, warping, and implications for F-term uplifting

TL;DR

The paper analyzes warping corrections to the scalar potential in Type IIB flux compactifications and their effect on F-term uplifting. It develops a systematic inverse-volume expansion to derive an off-shell four-dimensional potential and proposes a warped Kähler potential that aligns with ten-dimensional results. The authors find that KKLT-era uplifting is generically destabilized by warping and quantum mixing effects, while LVS-type constructions can achieve parametric control with corrections suppressed by inverse powers of the volume. The work clarifies the 10d-4d matching, assesses moduli stabilization under warping, and points toward LVS as a more robust route to warped uplift mechanisms, while suggesting numerical and N=1 correction studies for further validation.

Abstract

We analyse warping corrections to the scalar potential in flux compactifications of Type IIB string theory, focusing on their effect on $F$-term de Sitter uplifting in Calabi-Yau orientifold models. A systematic inverse-volume expansion allows us to derive the four-dimensional off-shell potential in the presence of warping and non-ISD 3-form fluxes. This corresponds to integrating out all massive Kaluza-Klein modes using the ten-dimensional equations of motion. We further propose a warped Kähler potential in four-dimensional $\mathcal{N}=1$ supergravity, and show that it is consistent with our ten-dimensional results. In the KKLT framework, we find that classical warping corrections, as well as mixed corrections involving non-ISD fluxes and quantum effects, are dominant, rendering the scenario effectively uncontrollable with current methods. By contrast, in LVS-like constructions these corrections are suppressed by inverse powers of the volume, specifically $\mathcal{V}^{1/2}$ or $\mathcal{V}^{1/6}$, depending on the concrete model.