KKLT without AdS

Abstract

According to the KKLT scenario, metastable dS vacua are formed as a result of uplifting of supersymmetric AdS vacua by $\overline{D3}$ branes. I describe an extended version of this scenario where metastable dS vacua appear after an uplift from a state where the potential of the volume modulus in the absence of $\overline{D3}$ branes would be unbounded below. This mechanism may considerably strengthen vacuum stabilization in the early universe.

Comments: 10 pages, 2 figures. Discussion section is extended; the version to appear in JHEP