Horizons cannot save the Landscape

TL;DR

This paper investigates whether certain singularities in string theory backgrounds with anti-D3 branes can be hidden behind black hole horizons, finding no such solutions exist and suggesting these singularities are unphysical.

Contribution

It demonstrates the non-existence of regular black hole solutions that cloak the singularities caused by anti-D3 branes in flux backgrounds, challenging their physical viability.

Findings

No Klebanov-Tseytlin black hole solutions with opposite charge sign exist.

Horizon charge in considered black holes matches asymptotic charge.

Results imply anti-D3 brane singularities are likely unphysical.

Abstract

Solutions with anti-D3 branes in a Klebanov-Strassler geometry with positive charge dissolved in fluxes have a certain singularity corresponding to a diverging energy density of the RR and NS-NS three-form fluxes. There are many hopes and arguments for and against this singularity, and we attempt to settle the issue by examining whether this singularity can be cloaked by a regular event horizon. This is equivalent to the existence of asymptotically Klebanov-Tseytlin or Klebanov-Strassler black holes whose charge measured at the horizon has the opposite sign to the asymptotic charge. We find that no such KT solution exists. Furthermore, for a large class of KS black holes we considered, the charge at the horizon must also have the same sign as the asymptotic charge, and is completely determined by the temperature, the number of fractional branes and the gaugino masses of the dual gauge theory. Our result suggests that antibrane singularities in backgrounds with charge in the fluxes are unphysical, which in turn raises the question as to whether antibranes can be used to uplift AdS vacua to deSitter ones. Our results also point out to a possible instability mechanism for the antibranes.