De Sitter hunting in a classical landscape

We elaborate on the construction of de Sitter solutions from IIA orientifolds of SU(3)-structure manifolds that solve the 10-dimensional equations of motion at tree-level in the approximation of smeared sources. First we classify geometries that are orbifolds of a group manifold covering space which, upon the proper inclusion of O6 planes, can be described within the framework of N = 1 supergravity in 4D. Then we scan systematically for de Sitter solutions, obtained as critical points of an effective 4D potential. Apart from finding many new solutions we emphasize the challenges in constructing explicit classical de Sitter vacua, which have sofar not been met. These challenges are interesting avenues for further research and include finding solutions that are perturbatively stable, satisfy charge and flux quantization, and have genuine localized (versus smeared) orientifold sources. This paper intends to be self-contained and pedagogical, and thus can serve as a guide to the necessary technical tools required for this line of research. In an appendix we explain how to study flux and charge quantization in the presence of a non-trivial H-field using twisted homology. (C) 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim