We study positivity bounds in the presence of gravity. We first review the gravitational positivity bound at the tree-level, where it is known that a certain amount of negativity is allowed for the coefficients of higher-derivative operators. The size of these potentially negative contributions is estimated for several tree-level, Reggeized gravitational amplitudes which are unitary at high energies and feature the t-channel pole characteristic of graviton exchange. We also argue for the form of the one-loop Regge amplitude assuming that the branch cut structure associated with the exchange of the graviton and higher-spin particles is reflected. We demonstrate how the one-loop Regge amplitude appears by summing over Feynman diagrams. For our one-loop amplitude proposal, the positivity bounds generically receive a finite contribution from the Regge tower and do not lead to a parametrically small bound on the cut-off scale of the low-energy EFT, consistent with recent studies based on sum rules of the amplitude.

In six-dimensional F-theory/heterotic string theory, half-hypermultiplets arise only when they correspond to particular quaternionic Kähler symmetric spaces, which are mostly associated with the Freudenthal-Tits magic square. Motivated by the intriguing singularity structure previously found in such F-theory models with a gauge group SU(6), SO(12) or E7, we investigate, as the final magical example, an F-theory on an elliptic fibration over a Hirzebruch surface of the non-split I6 type, in which the unbroken gauge symmetry is supposed to be Sp(3). We find significant qualitative differences between the previous F-theory models associated with the magic square and the present case. We argue that the relevant half-hypermultiplets arise at the E6 points, where half-hypermultiplets 20 of SU(6) would have appeared in the split model. We also consider the problem on the non-local matter generation near the D6 point. After stating what the problem is, we explain why this is so by using the recent result that a split/non-split transition can be regarded as a conifold transition.

A "dessin d'enfant" is a graph embedded on a two-dimensional oriented surface named by Grothendieck. Recently we have developed a new way to keep track of non-localness among 7branes in F-theory on an elliptic fibration over P 1 by drawing a triangulated "dessin" on the base.To further demonstrate the usefulness of this method, we provide three examples of its use. We first consider a deformation of the I * 0 Kodaira fiber. With a dessin, we can immediately find out which pairs of 7-branes are (non-)local and compute their monodromies. We next identify the paths of string(-junction)s on the dessin by solving the mass geodesic equation. By numerically computing their total masses, we find that the Hanany-Witten effect has not occurred in this example. Finally, we consider the orientifold limit in the spectral cover/Higgs bundle approach. We observe the characteristic configuration presenting the cluster sub-structure of an O-plane found previously. *

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We study positivity bounds in the presence of gravity. We first review the gravitational positivity bound at the tree-level, where it is known that a certain amount of negativity is allowed for the coefficients of higher-derivative operators. The size of these potentially negative contributions is estimated for several tree-level, Reggeized gravitational amplitudes which are unitary at high energies and feature the t-channel pole characteristic of graviton exchange. We also argue for the form of the one-loop Regge amplitude assuming that the branch cut structure associated with the exchange of the graviton and higherspin particles is reflected. We demonstrate how the one-loop Regge amplitude appears by summing over Feynman diagrams. For our one-loop amplitude proposal, the positivity bounds generically receive a finite contribution from the Regge tower and do not lead to a parametrically small bound on the cut-off scale of the low-energy EFT, consistent with recent studies based on sum rules of the amplitude.