Accelerated expansion, dS, & Strings:  From the Swampland to the Landscape

Is the cosmological constant really a constant? Are the recent hints to the contrary from the DESI collaboration real or a mirage? What is the fundamental nature of the accelerated expansion in our Universe? Is de Sitter space in the Landscape or in the Swampland? What's the latest on de Sitter constructions in string theory?

These are just a few of the many fundamental open questions centered around accelerated expansion, that we hope to address in the "Accelerated Expansion, de Sitter & Strings: From the Swampland to the Landscape" (AES3L) workshop. The aim is to gather the leading experts in the field to discuss the recent developements in our understanding of de Sitter (and more generally, accelerated cosmologies) from several, complementary points of view, and to establish an active dialog between the stringy, swampy, and bottom up approaches to this question, as well as the implications to cosmology and particle physics. This workshop follows the tradition of the "Madrid September workshop" that goes back more than a decade. Related workshops include Vistas over the Swampland, Navigating the Swampland, Back to the Swamp and Swamplandia 2023.

The workshop will take place in-person at the Institute of Theoretical Physics (IFT), Madrid, Spain. You can find directions here.

To attend the workshop, please register here.  We do not provide any reccomended hotels, but anything in the Atocha area will be convenient to commute to IFT via Cercanias train.

SOCIAL EVENT: On Thursday evening we will have a conference dinner (venue TBD), price aprox. 50€.

Organizers:

• Luis Ibañez

• Fernando Marchesano

• Miguel Montero

• Ángel Uranga

Confirmed speakers:

• Yashar Akrami

• David Andriot

• Dionysios Anninos

• Raphael Bousso

• Michele Cicoli

• Patrick Draper

• Mariana Graña 

• Arthur Hebecker

• Shota Komatsu

• Severin Lüst

• Beatrix Mühlmann

• Vladimir Narovlansky

• Susha Parameswaran

• Francisco Pedro

• Gui Pimentel

• Nicole Righi

• Gary Shiu

• Chiara Toldo

• Thomas Van Riet

CODE OF CONDUCT: Participants to the conference agree to abide by the IFT Code of Conduct (to be found here) at all times during their stay in Madrid -- including social events in the context of the conference. Harassment of any form will not be tolerated. Cases can be reported anonymously at the IFT EDI mailbox  and will receive immediate attention from the IFT EDI committee.