Further refining the de Sitter swampland conjecture

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.