Bifid Throats for Axion Monodromy Inflation

TL;DR

This paper constructs an explicit local geometry called a bifid throat for axion monodromy inflation, enabling controlled backreaction analysis and potential realization in string theory models.

Contribution

It introduces a concrete example of a bifid throat geometry using a deformed orbifold of the conifold, with a holographic dual description including D3-branes and fractional 5-branes.

Findings

Backreaction of 5-brane-antibrane pairs is small and controllable.

Holographic dual allows analysis of warping effects.

Explicit geometric construction for axion monodromy inflation models.

Abstract

We construct a simple explicit local geometry providing a `bifid throat' for 5-brane axion monodromy. A bifid throat is a throat that splits into two daughter throats in the IR, containing a homologous 2-cycle family reaching down into each daughter throat. Our example consists of a deformed $\mathbb{Z}_3\times\mathbb{Z}_2$ orbifold of the conifold, which provides us with an explicit holographic dual of the bifid throat including D3-branes and fractional 5-branes at the toric singularities of our setup. Having the holographic description in terms of the dual gauge theory allows us to address the effect of 5-brane-antibrane pair backreaction including the warping effects. This leads to the size of the backreaction being small and controllable after imposing proper normalization of the inflaton potential and hence the warping scales.