Polchinski-Strassler does not uplift Klebanov-Strassler

TL;DR

The paper demonstrates that anti-D3-branes in the Klebanov-Strassler background do not polarize into anti-D5-branes, indicating limitations in using antibranes for uplifting AdS vacua to de Sitter space in string theory.

Contribution

It provides a no-go result for brane polarization in the fully back-reacted solution, challenging the viability of antibrane uplift mechanisms.

Findings

No polarization into anti-D5-branes at finite radius.

Singular fluxes suggest the solution is unphysical.

Antibranes cannot be used to uplift AdS vacua.

Abstract

Anti-D3-branes at the tip of the Klebanov-Strassler solution with D3-charge dissolved in fluxes give rise, in the probe approximation, to a metastable state. The fully back-reacted smeared solution has singular three-form fluxes in the IR, whose presence suggests a stringy resolution by brane polarization a la Polchinski-Strassler. In this paper we show that there is no polarization into anti-D5-branes wrapping the $S^2$ of the conifold at a finite radius. The singularities therefore do not seem to be physical, signaling that antibranes cannot be used to uplift AdS and obtain a very large landscape of de Sitter vacua in string theory.