On Isolated Vacua and Background Independence
Abstract
Description
I argue that isolated vacua of M-theory, cannot in any conventional way be said to live in the same theory as other disconnected parts of the moduli space. The usual field theoretic mechanisms, which allow an observer in one disconnected component of a moduli space to verify the existence of other components, fail. The failure is a consequence of robust properties of black holes. When barriers between components are much smaller than the Planck scale, the usual field theoretic picture is approximately valid.
JHEP LaTeX, 13 pages. Various comments added in response to correspondents' questions. In particular, generality of the result beyond the context of N=1 SUSY is given more emphasis
JHEP LaTeX, 13 pages. Various comments added in response to correspondents' questions. In particular, generality of the result beyond the context of N=1 SUSY is given more emphasis