de Sitter String Vacua from Supersymmetric D-terms
C. P. Burgess, R. Kallosh, F. Quevedo
TL;DR
This paper addresses obtaining de Sitter vacua in string theory without explicit SUSY breaking by replacing the KKLT anti-D3 uplift with a flux-induced D-term from D7-branes, yielding a spontaneously broken SUSY in a fully supersymmetric 4D action. Moduli stabilization follows the KKLT logic: fluxes fix complex-structure moduli and the axio-dilaton via a Gukov-Vafa-Witten superpotential $W = W_0 + A e^{-aT}$, while nonperturbative effects fix the Kähler modulus $T$, producing an AdS minimum; the D-term from D7 flux then uplifts this minimum to de Sitter for suitable parameters. The construction is shown to generalize to heterotic vacua via a Green-Schwarz FI term associated with an anomalous U(1), offering a parallel route to dS via $V = V_F + V_D$ with $V_D$ depending on $S$ and charged fields. The work emphasizes the role of FI terms, the need to ensure charged fields do not cancel the D-term uplift, and outlines connections to D3/D7 systems and potential inflationary implications. Overall, it provides a supersymmetric, string-theoretic pathway to metastable de Sitter vacua with broad applicability across IIB and heterotic frameworks.
Abstract
We propose a new mechanism for obtaining de Sitter vacua in type IIB string theory compactified on (orientifolded) Calabi-Yau manifolds similar to those recently studied by Kachru, Kallosh, Linde and Trivedi (KKLT). dS vacuum appears in KKLT model after uplifting an AdS vacuum by adding an anti-D3-brane, which explicitly breaks supersymmetry. We accomplish the same goal by adding fluxes of gauge fields within the D7-branes, which induce a D-term potential in the effective 4D action. In this way we obtain dS space as a spontaneously broken vacuum from a purely supersymmetric 4D action. We argue that our approach can be directly extended to heterotic string vacua, with the dilaton potential obtained from a combination of gaugino condensation and the D-terms generated by anomalous U(1) gauge groups.