Relating Conifold Geometries to NS5-branes

TL;DR

This paper constructs the first explicit supergravity solution for intersecting NS5-branes using a novel map to conifold geometries, advancing understanding of brane configurations and their holographic duals.

Contribution

It establishes an explicit correspondence between conifold metrics and NS5-brane near horizon geometries, enabling analysis of complex brane intersections.

Findings

First known supergravity solution for intersecting NS5-branes

Explicit map between conifold geometry and brane near horizon

Potential holographic interpretation in little string theory

Abstract

We construct the first known example of a near horizon supergravity solution for a pair of NS5-branes, intersecting on R^{1,3} and localised in all directions except a single transverse circle. We do this by establishing an explicit map between the conifold metric and the near horizon geometry of two intersecting NS5-branes, clarifying and correcting a number of open issues in the literature en route. Our technique is general in nature and may be applied to a whole class of 1/4-BPS five-brane webs and their geometric duals. These 1/4-BPS solutions may have an interesting holographic interpretation in terms of little string theory.