Brane/Flux Annihilation and the String Dual of a Non-Supersymmetric Field Theory

TL;DR

This paper studies the decay of anti-D3 branes in a flux background, revealing a quantum tunneling process to a supersymmetric vacuum and providing a dual field theory interpretation of the transition.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed analysis of brane-flux annihilation and its dual gauge theory description, highlighting a new tunneling mechanism in non-supersymmetric setups.

Findings

Stable nonsupersymmetric NS 5-brane configuration for p<<M

Quantum tunneling to supersymmetric vacuum via NS 5-brane bubble nucleation

Dual field theory transition between baryonic and mesonic branches

Abstract

We consider the dynamics of p anti-D3 branes inside the Klebanov-Strassler geometry, the deformed conifold with M units of RR 3-form flux around the S^3. We find that for p<<M the system relaxes to a nonsupersymmetric NS 5-brane ``giant graviton'' configuration, which is classically stable, but quantum mechanically can tunnel to a nearby supersymmetric vacuum with M-p D3 branes. This decay mode is exponentially suppressed and proceeds via the nucleation of an NS 5-brane bubble wall. We propose a dual field theory interpretation of the decay as the transition between a nonsupersymmetric ``baryonic'' branch and a supersymmetric ``mesonic'' branch of the corresponding SU(2M-p)x SU(M-p) low energy gauge theory. The NS 5-brane tunneling process also provides a simple explanation of the geometric transition by which D3-branes can dissolve into 3-form flux.