On the Moduli Space of the Cascading SU(M+p)xSU(p) Gauge Theory

TL;DR

This paper thoroughly analyzes the moduli space of a cascading SU(M+p) x SU(p) gauge theory, exploring its string duals, various branches, and potential applications in D-brane inflation.

Contribution

It provides a detailed study of the moduli space, including new insights into mesonic and baryonic branches, and matches supergravity solutions with gauge theory results.

Findings

Identification of mesonic branches with warped deformed conifolds

Existence of a baryonic branch when p is divisible by M

Potential for D3-brane inflation based on the radial potential analysis

Abstract

We carry out a thorough analysis of the moduli space of the cascading gauge theory found on p D3-branes and M wrapped D5-branes at the tip of the conifold. We find various mesonic branches of the moduli space whose string duals involve the warped deformed conifold with different numbers of mobile D3-branes. The branes that are not mobile form a BPS bound state at threshold. In the special case where p is divisible by M there also exists a one-dimensional baryonic branch whose family of supergravity duals, the resolved warped deformed conifolds, was constructed recently. The warped deformed conifold is a special case of these backgrounds where the resolution parameter vanishes and a Z_2 symmetry is restored. We study various brane probes on the resolved warped deformed conifolds, and successfully match the results with the gauge theory. In particular, we show that the radial potential for a D3-brane on this space varies slowly, suggesting a new model of D-brane inflation.