The tadpole problem
Mariana Grana (Institut de Physique Théorique)

One of the biggest problems in string compactifications is the large number of massless fields associated to deformations of the internal geometry. These “moduli” get masses from fluxes wrapping non-trivial cycles on the manifold. Fluxes have an associated charge, which on a compact manifold has to satisfy tadpole cancelation conditions. The tadpole conjecture proposes that the charge induced by the fluxes needed to stabilise a large number of moduli grows linearly with the number of moduli. In this talk I will go over the basics of flux compactifications, explain the conjecture, present its motivation, supporting evidence and consequences.