Stefano Massai

The backreaction of anti-D3 branes on the Klebanov-Strassler geometry

A bstractWe present the full numerical solution for the 15-dimensional space of linearized deformations of the Klebanov-Strassler background which preserve the SU(2) × SU(2) ×

Anti-D3 Branes: Singular to the bitter end

{{\mathbb{Z}}_2}

On metastable vacua and the warped deformed conifold: analytic results

symmetries. We identify within this space the solution corresponding to anti-D3 branes, (modulo the presence of a certain “subleading” singularity in the infrared). All the 15 integration constants of this solution are fixed in terms of the number of anti-D3 branes, and the solution differs in the UV from the supersymmetric solution into which it is supposed to decay by a mode corresponding to a rescaling of the field theory coordinates. Deciding whether two solutions that differ in the UV by a rescaling mode are dual to the same theory is involved even for supersymmetric Klebanov-Strassler solutions, and we explain in detail some of the subtleties associated to this.

Giant tachyons in the landscape

We study the full backreaction of anti-D3 branes smeared over the tip of the deformed conifold. Requiring the 5-form flux and warp factor at the tip to be that of anti-D3 branes, we find a simple power counting argument showing that if the three-form fluxes have no IR singularity, they will be necessarily imaginary-anti-self-dual. Hence the only solution with anti-D3 branes at the tip of the conifold that is regular in the IR and the UV is the anti-Klebanov-Strassler solution, and there is no regular solution whose D3-charge is negative in the IR and positive in the UV.

Polchinski-Strassler does not uplift Klebanov-Strassler

Continuing the programme of constructing the backreacted solution corresponding to smeared anti-D3 branes in the warped deformed conifold, we solve analytically the equations governing the space of first-order deformations around this solution. We express the results in terms of at most three nested integrals. These are the simplest expressions for the space of -invariant deformations, in which the putative solution for smeared anti-D3 branes must live. We also explain why one cannot claim to identify this solution without fully relating the coefficients of the infrared and ultraviolet expansions of the deformation modes. The analytic solution we find is the first step in this direction.

Metastable Vacua and the Backreacted Stenzel Geometry

A bstractWe study the dynamics of localized and fully backreacting anti-D3 branes at the tip of the Klebanov-Strassler geometry. We use a non-supersymmetric version of the Polchinski-Strassler analysis to compute the potential for anti-D3 branes to polarize into all kinds of five-brane shells in all possible directions. We find that generically there is a direction along which the brane-brane interaction is repulsive, which implies that anti-D3 branes are tachyonic. Hence, even though anti-D3 branes can polarize into five-branes, the solution will most likely be unstable. This indicates that anti-D3 brane uplift may not result in stable de Sitter vacua.

Heterotic T-fects, 6D SCFTs, and F-theory

A bstractAnti-D3-branes at the tip of the Klebanov-Strassler solution with D3-charge dissolved in fluxes give rise, in the probe approximation, to a metastable state. The fully back-reacted smeared solution has singular three-form fluxes in the IR, whose presence suggests a stringy resolution by brane polarization à la Polchinski-Strassler. In this paper we show that there is no polarization into anti-D5-branes wrapping the S2 of the conifold at a finite radius. The singularities therefore do not seem to be physical, signaling that antibranes cannot be used to uplift AdS and obtain a very large landscape of de Sitter vacua in string theory.

Tachyonic anti-M2 branes

A bstractWe construct an M-theory background dual to the metastable state recently discussed by Klebanov and Pufu, which corresponds to placing a stack of anti-M2 branes at the tip of a warped Stenzel space. With this purpose we analytically solve for the linearized non-supersymmetric deformations around the warped Stenzel space, preserving the SO(5) symmetries of the supersymmetric background, and which interpolate between the IR and UV region. We identify the supergravity solution which corresponds to a stack of

Uplifting the baryonic branch: a test for backreacting anti-D3-branes

\overline N