Further refining the de Sitter swampland conjecture

Abstract

We propose an alternative refined de Sitter conjecture. It is given by a natural condition on a combination of the first and second derivatives of the scalar potential. We derive our conjecture in the same weak coupling, semi-classical regime where the previous refined de Sitter conjecture was derived, using the same tools together with a few more assumptions that we discuss. We further test and constrain free parameters in our conjecture using data points of a classical type IIA supergravity setup. Interestingly, our conjecture easily accommodates slow-roll single field inflation with a concave potential, favored by observations. The standard quintessence potential is in tension with our new conjecture, and we thus propose a different type of quintessence model.

Comments: v2: few clarifications, references added, published version