Stable Non-Supersymmetric Supergravity Solutions from Deformations of the Maldacena-Nunez Background

TL;DR

This paper constructs a non-supersymmetric, stable supergravity solution derived from a deformation of the Maldacena-Nunez background, representing a mass term in a dual little string theory that breaks supersymmetry.

Contribution

It provides an explicit leading-order construction of a stable, non-supersymmetric supergravity background from a known supersymmetric solution, expanding understanding of non-supersymmetric stable vacua.

Findings

Deformation introduces a scalar VEV depending on the radial coordinate.

The resulting background completely breaks supersymmetry.

Stability is guaranteed due to the original mass gap and small deformation.

Abstract

We study a deformation of the type IIB Maldacena-Nunez background which arises as the near-horizon limit of NS5 branes wrapped on a two-cycle. This background is dual to a "little string theory" compactified on a two-sphere, a theory which at low energies includes four-dimensional N = 1 super Yang-Mills theory. The deformation we study corresponds to a mass term for some of the scalar fields in this theory, and it breaks supersymmetry completely. In the language of seven-dimensional SO(4) gauged supergravity the deformation involves (at leading order) giving a VEV, depending only on the radial coordinate, to a particular scalar field. We explicitly construct the corresponding solution at leading order in the deformation, both in seven-dimensional and in ten-dimensional supergravity, and we verify that it completely breaks supersymmetry. Since the original background had a mass gap and we are performing a small deformation, the deformed background is guaranteed to be stable even though it is not supersymmetric.