On a Deformation of 3-Branes

TL;DR

This paper constructs a smooth, non-supersymmetric deformation of 3-brane solutions in type IIB supergravity, revealing insights into dual gauge theories' conformal and confining behaviors.

Contribution

It introduces explicit non-supersymmetric deformations of 3-brane solutions, linking them to massive deformations and soft supersymmetry breaking in dual gauge theories.

Findings

Deformation approaches the original solution asymptotically, indicating UV conformal invariance restoration.

Deformed solutions suggest dual gauge theories exhibit confinement.

Supergravity analysis implies a massive deformation corresponds to soft SUSY breaking.

Abstract

We construct an explicit class of solutions of type IIB supergravity that is a smooth deformation of the 3-brane class of solutions. The solution is nonsupersymmetric and involves nontrivial dilaton and axion fields as well as the standard 5-form field strength. One of the main features of the solution is that for large values of the radius the deformation is small and it asymptotically approaches the undeformed 3-brane solution, signaling a restoration of conformal invariance in the UV for the dual gauge theory. We suggest that the supergravity deformation corresponds to a massive deformation on the dual gauge theory and consequently the deformed theory has the undeformed one as an ultraviolet fixed point. In cases where the original 3-brane solution preserves some amount of supersymmetry we suggest that the gauge theory interpretation is that of soft supersymmetry breaking. We discuss the deformation for D3-branes on the conifold and the generalized conifold explicitly. We show that the semiclassical behavior of the Wilson loop suggests that the corresponding gauge theory duals are confining.