Brane/Flux Annihilation and the String Dual of a Non-Supersymmetric Field Theory
Shamit Kachru, John Pearson, Herman Verlinde
TL;DR
The paper constructs and analyzes a non-supersymmetric string background formed by placing $p\ll M$ anti-D3 branes in the Klebanov-Strassler throat. It shows that the system relaxes to a metastable NS 5-brane giant graviton that can quantum-mechanically tunnel to a supersymmetric vacuum with $M-p$ D3 branes, via NS 5-brane bubble nucleation, with an exponentially suppressed rate. A dual KS gauge theory picture identifies the metastable state with a nonsupersymmetric baryonic branch and the decay with a transition to the mesonic branch; a domain wall description accounts for the flux jump and the geometric transition. The analysis is complemented by a dual Type IIA brane construction, linking the dynamics to RG cascades and brane/flux transmutation, thereby providing a concrete holographic realization of a non-supersymmetric vacuum and its decay within string theory. This framework offers a controlled setting to study brane/flux annihilation, geometric transitions, and the connection between nonsupersymmetric vacua and flux dynamics in warped compactifications.
Abstract
We consider the dynamics of p anti-D3 branes inside the Klebanov-Strassler geometry, the deformed conifold with M units of RR 3-form flux around the S^3. We find that for p<<M the system relaxes to a nonsupersymmetric NS 5-brane ``giant graviton'' configuration, which is classically stable, but quantum mechanically can tunnel to a nearby supersymmetric vacuum with M-p D3 branes. This decay mode is exponentially suppressed and proceeds via the nucleation of an NS 5-brane bubble wall. We propose a dual field theory interpretation of the decay as the transition between a nonsupersymmetric ``baryonic'' branch and a supersymmetric ``mesonic'' branch of the corresponding SU(2M-p)x SU(M-p) low energy gauge theory. The NS 5-brane tunneling process also provides a simple explanation of the geometric transition by which D3-branes can dissolve into 3-form flux.