Fatal attraction: more on decaying anti-branes

TL;DR

This work argues that anti-branes in flux throats experience flux clumping, causing a local pile-up of flux that enhances brane-flux annihilation and undermines metastability. By analyzing NS5-brane polarization, non-Abelian anti-D3 dynamics, and bubble nucleation, the authors derive a critical flux density $\lambda_c$ beyond which metastable vacua disappear, with $\lambda_c$ scaling differently from warp factors and leading to a perturbative decay when approached. The conclusions challenge the viability of KPV/KKLT-like metastable SUSY breaking in supergravity, suggesting that the static singular anti-brane solutions are unstable or require time-dependent evolution to resolve. The paper also discusses potential (and problematic) resolutions at small scales and contrasts its conclusions with other analyses, emphasizing that a robust, large-scale supergravity resolution to preserve metastability remains unlikely.

Abstract

We elaborate on the decay of branes inside throat geometries that are supported by flux carrying charges opposite to the brane. Our main point is that such backgrounds necessarily have a local, possibly diverging, pile up of brane-charges dissolved in flux around the anti-brane due to the (fatal) attraction of the flux towards the brane. We explain that this causes enhanced brane-flux annihilation and is in tension with the idea that anti-branes can be used to construct meta-stable vacua. We argue that stable configurations -- if they at all exist -- are not obtainable within SUGR. The problem we point out is already present when the back-reaction is confined in the IR and the associated uplift energy small. Our results are valid in the regime that is complementary to a recent analysis of Bena et. al.

Figures (5)

• Figure 1: The clumping of positively charged fluxes near a negatively charged anti-brane. The blue region corresponds to the flux density and the darker the blue the higher the density. The red dot represents the anti-brane.
• Figure 2: The polarisation of the anti-D3 brane into a spherical NS5-brane wrapping a contractible $S^2$ inside the $S^3$ at the tip.
• Figure 3: The effective potential for the motion of the NS$5$ brane, plotted for different values of $\lambda$. The vertical axis denotes the value for the potential and the horizontal axis the Euler angle $\psi$. This picture taken from Blaback:2012nf.
• Figure 4: The three dimensions of the NS5-brane transverse to the bubble wall correspond to the thickness of the wall and an internal $S^2$. The $S^2$ moves across the $S^3$ when you go through the bubble wall..
• Figure 5: At the tip of the KS throat a new AdS throat opens up around the anti-D3 branes.