On The Inflaton Potential From Antibranes in Warped Throats

TL;DR

This paper calculates the force between branes and antibranes in warped throats using two methods, showing the force is unscreened and enabling precise inflaton potential computation in string cosmology.

Contribution

It demonstrates the equivalence of two different computational approaches for brane-antibrane forces, confirming the force is unscreened in flux backgrounds.

Findings

Force between branes and antibranes is identical in both methods.

Force is not screened in backgrounds with positive flux charge.

Enables precise calculation of inflaton potential in string cosmology.

Abstract

We compute the force between a stack of smeared antibranes at the bottom of a warped throat and a stack of smeared branes at some distance up the throat, both for anti-D3 branes and for anti-M2 branes. We perform this calculation in two ways: first, by treating the antibranes as probes in the background sourced by the branes and second, by treating the branes as probes in the candidate background sourced by the antibranes. These two very different calculations yield exactly the same expression for the force, for all values of the brane-antibrane separation. This indicates that the force between a brane and an antibrane is not screened in backgrounds where there is positive charge dissolved in flux, and gives a way to precisely compute the inflaton potential in certain string cosmology scenarios.