Compact T-branes

TL;DR

This paper investigates the global properties and stability of T-branes, a class of 7-brane backgrounds with non-commuting scalars, revealing constraints on their existence and behavior across moduli space.

Contribution

It provides a global analysis of T-branes on compact Kähler surfaces, showing their non-existence on certain geometries and exploring their stability and splitting phenomena.

Findings

T-branes cannot be constructed on surfaces with positive or zero Ricci curvature.

Stable T-branes can split into non-supersymmetric constituents across stability walls.

Examples of T-brane splitting behavior are provided.

Abstract

We analyse global aspects of 7-brane backgrounds with a non-commuting profile for their worldvolume scalars, also known as T-branes. In particular, we consider configurations with no poles and globally well-defined over a compact K\"ahler surface. We find that such T-branes cannot be constructed on surfaces of positive or vanishing Ricci curvature. For the existing T-branes, we discuss their stability as we move in K\"ahler moduli space at large volume and provide examples of T-branes splitting into non-mutually-supersymmetric constituents as they cross a stability wall.