Logo
ScienceStack
Table of Contents
Fetching ...
Sign In

Observations on fluxes near anti-branes

Diego Cohen-Maldonado, Juan Diaz, Thomas Van Riet, Bert Vercnocke

TL;DR

This work investigates whether anti-branes in flux throats can backreact without producing unphysical 3-form flux singularities by allowing polarization into spherical NS5 branes. Using a boundary-term approach, it derives IR–UV gluing constraints encoded in the generalized ADM mass and analyzes both anti-D3 and NS5 boundary conditions. The main finding is that NS5 polarization can render the flux divergence physical, yielding a unique NS5 radius with $R^2 \sim \frac{p}{M}$ (i.e., $R \sim \sqrt{\frac{p}{M}}$) for small $p/M$, in contrast to the probe result $R \sim \frac{p}{M}$. Finite-temperature considerations suggest possible loopholes in previous no-go theorems, provided certain horizon-flux orientations are relaxed, and the authors outline numerical and Smarr-relation avenues to further establish viable backreacted solutions for metastable anti-brane configurations.

Abstract

We revisit necessary conditions for gluing local (anti-)D3 throats into flux throats with opposite charge. These consistency conditions typically reveal singularities in the three-form fluxes whose meaning is being debated. In this note we prove, under well-motivated assumptions, that unphysical singularities can potentially be avoided when the anti-branes polarise into spherical NS5 branes with a specific radius. If a consistent solution can then indeed be found, our analysis seems to suggests a rather large correction to the radius of the polarization sphere compared to the probe result. We furthermore comment on the gluing conditions at finite temperature and point out that one specific assumption of a recent no-go theorem can be broken if anti-branes are indeed to polarise into spherical NS5 branes at zero temperature.

Observations on fluxes near anti-branes

TL;DR

This work investigates whether anti-branes in flux throats can backreact without producing unphysical 3-form flux singularities by allowing polarization into spherical NS5 branes. Using a boundary-term approach, it derives IR–UV gluing constraints encoded in the generalized ADM mass and analyzes both anti-D3 and NS5 boundary conditions. The main finding is that NS5 polarization can render the flux divergence physical, yielding a unique NS5 radius with (i.e., ) for small , in contrast to the probe result . Finite-temperature considerations suggest possible loopholes in previous no-go theorems, provided certain horizon-flux orientations are relaxed, and the authors outline numerical and Smarr-relation avenues to further establish viable backreacted solutions for metastable anti-brane configurations.

Abstract

We revisit necessary conditions for gluing local (anti-)D3 throats into flux throats with opposite charge. These consistency conditions typically reveal singularities in the three-form fluxes whose meaning is being debated. In this note we prove, under well-motivated assumptions, that unphysical singularities can potentially be avoided when the anti-branes polarise into spherical NS5 branes with a specific radius. If a consistent solution can then indeed be found, our analysis seems to suggests a rather large correction to the radius of the polarization sphere compared to the probe result. We furthermore comment on the gluing conditions at finite temperature and point out that one specific assumption of a recent no-go theorem can be broken if anti-branes are indeed to polarise into spherical NS5 branes at zero temperature.

Paper Structure

This paper contains 14 sections, 43 equations, 2 figures.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Gluing IR to UV at
  3. Flux divergences
  4. Anti-D3 boundary condition
  5. NS5 boundary condition
  6. Revisiting no-go claims
  7. Conclusions and outlook
  8. Summary of results
  9. Numerical analysis
  10. Connection to Smarr relations and black hole physics
  11. Appendix
  12. Boundary term
  13. Supergravity brane solutions
  14. Anti- branes at finite

Figures (2)

  • Figure 1: Boundaries $\partial {\cal M}$, with 4d Minkowski directions suppressed. Left: the IR surface that encapsulates the NS5 corresponds to an $S^3 \times S^2$ close to the brane. The spherical NS5 is drawn symbolically as a red circle. We can choose a patch such that the $B_2$ gauge field is well-defined everywhere except in they gray surface stretching from one side of the NS5-brane to another. Right: the UV boundary can be taken to be $S^5$.
  • Figure 2: Pictorial representation of the Klebanov-Strassler geometry. There are a priori two polarization channels for anti-D3 branes: NS5 polarization on an $S^2$ inside the A-cycle, or D5 polarization on the $S^2$ of the B-cycle.