Kachru, Kallosh, Linde, and Trivedi recently constructed a four-dimensional de Sitter compactification of type IIB string theory, which they showed to be metastable in agreement with general arguments about de Sitter spacetimes in quantum gravity. In this paper, we describe how discrete flux choices lead to a closely spaced set of vacua and explore various decay channels. We find that in many situations NS5-brane mediated decays which exchange NSNS 3-form flux for D3-branes are comparatively very fast.

• Received 30 May 2003

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.68.046008