Non-supersymmetric deformations of the dual of a confining gauge theory

TL;DR

The authors develop a gradient-flow–based perturbative framework to study non-supersymmetric deformations of the Klebanov-Strassler domain-wall solution, aiming to understand confining gauge theories via AdS/CFT. By expanding around a known superpotential–generated background and solving linearized first-order equations for perturbations in terms of $\xi_a$ and $\bar{\phi}^a$, they classify deformations into non-supersymmetric ($\{X\}$) and supersymmetric ($\{Z\}$) sectors and analyze the full set of radial equations in the KS setup. Asymptotic analyses at $\tau\to\infty$ and $\tau\to 0$ show that exactly three regular non-supersymmetric deformations preserve the global bosonic symmetries of the background, while no regular near-extremal perturbations with a horizon exist. The work provides a concrete method to count and characterize perturbations around non-AdS backgrounds in AdS/CFT and clarifies the structure of non-supersymmetric vacua for confining theories.

Abstract

We introduce a computational technique for studying non-supersymmetric deformations of domain wall solutions of interest in AdS/CFT. We focus on the Klebanov-Strassler solution, which is dual to a confining gauge theory. From an analysis of asymptotics we find that there are three deformations that leave the ten-dimensional supergravity solution regular and preserve the global bosonic symmetries of the supersymmetric solution. Also, we show that there are no regular near-extremal deformations preserving the global symmetries, as one might expect from the existence of a gap in the gauge theory.