Stable de Sitter vacua in N=2, D=5 supergravity

TL;DR

The paper addresses the existence of stable de Sitter vacua in five-dimensional $\mathcal{N}=2$ gauged supergravity, exploring the necessary ingredients and the role of scalar-manifold geometry. It shows that gauging $U(1)_R$ alone cannot yield stable vacua, while certain non-compact gaugings with tensor multiplets and $U(1)_R$ can produce stable de Sitter points in specific models; stability depends on detailed tensor and hypermultiplet couplings. An explicit stable example is presented with $SO(\tilde{n}-1,1)$ non-compact gauging and charged tensors, yielding a positive Hessian up to a Goldstone mode eaten by the gauge field. The authors also demonstrate that including hypermultiplets and gauging a hypermultiplet isometry can yield stable de Sitter vacua, and that many other symmetric-space constructions do not guarantee stability, highlighting the model-dependent nature of the result. The findings suggest intriguing connections to higher-dimensional vacuum structure and potential dS/CFT considerations, while pointing to future work needed to map the full landscape and possible embeddings in string/M-theory.

Abstract

We find 5D gauged supergravity theories exhibiting stable de Sitter vacua. These are the first examples of stable de Sitter vacua in higher-dimensional (D>4) supergravity. Non-compact gaugings with tensor multiplets and R-symmetry gauging seem to be the essential ingredients in these models. They are however not sufficient to guarantee stable de Sitter vacua, as we show by investigating several other models. The qualitative behaviour of the potential also seems to depend crucially on the geometry of the scalar manifold.