# Mass-deformed M2 branes in Stenzel space

## TL;DR

This paper constructs finite-temperature M2 black brane solutions in 11D supergravity with a specific flux background, exploring their implications for dual 3D conformal field theories and potential phase transitions.

## Contribution

It introduces new mass-deformed M2 brane solutions in Stenzel space, analyzing their stability, phase transitions, and relevance to AdS/CFT and cosmological uplift mechanisms.

## Key findings

- Solutions are asymptotically AdS4 x V_{5,2}
- Evidence of potential confinement/deconfinement transition
- Possible Gregory-Laflamme instability leading to symmetry breaking

## Abstract

We obtain finite-temperature M2 black branes in 11-dimensional supergravity, in a $G_4$-flux background whose self-dual part approaches a solution of Cveti\v{c}, Gibbons, L\"u, and Pope, based upon Stenzel's family of Ricci-flat K\"ahler deformed cones. Our solutions are asymptotically $AdS_4$ times a 7-dimensional Stiefel manifold $V_{5,2}$, and the branes are ``smeared'' to retain $SO(5)$ symmetry in the internal space. The solutions represent a mass deformation of the corresponding dual $CFT_3$, whose full description is at this time only partially-understood. We investigate the possibility of a confinement/de-confinement phase transition analogous to the $AdS_5 \times S^5$ case, and a possible Gregory-Laflamme type instability which could lead to polarised brane solutions which break $SO(5)$. We discuss possible consequences for AdS/CFT and the KKLT cosmological uplift mechanism.