Perturbative decay of anti-branes in flux backgrounds due to space time instabilities

Abstract

In this paper we suggest a new source of perturbative decay of the KPV-state, which might have consequences for the viability of the KKLT-construction. The results do not rely on any direct enhancement of the decay due to flux accumulating on the anti-brane in transverse space. Instead, we note that the system can lower its energy through a sequence of NS5-configurations all the way to the true vacuum, without encountering a barrier, if we allow for clumping of screened charge in space time. The clumping can possibly be a parallel to the Gregory-Laflamme instability of black branes. The results are obtained at large $p$, but for $p/M$ arbitrarily small. It is furthermore argued that the results extend to cases of few or single anti-branes where quantization becomes important. We believe that it is important to investigate this possible effect further to judge whether there are any fatal consequences.

Figures (8)

• Figure 1: The constant configuration we start with, together with the slightly polarized NS5.
• Figure 2: A peaked configuration of screened charge, together with the corresponding configuration of the NS5 that does not lead to a transition to the true vacuum.
• Figure 3: A plot of the total energy as a function of $p_2$ is shown in black, demonstrating the instability of the configuration in figure 1. The contribution from the piece of space with $p=p_1$ is shown in red, while the contribution from the piece with $p=p_2$ is shown in blue. Note how the increase in energy in the first region is compensated by a slightly larger decrease in the second region.
• Figure 4: The minimum of the potential for our example with $p_1=p_2=1$.
• Figure 5: The minimum of the potential for our example with $p_2=10$ is shown on the right. The minimum for the corresponding value for $p_1$ is shown on the left.