We use top-down holography to study the thermodynamics of a one-parameter family of three-dimensional, strongly coupled Yang-Mills-Chern-Simons theories with M-theory duals. For generic values of the parameter, the theories exhibit a mass gap but no confinement, meaning no linear quark-antiquark potential. For two specific values of the parameter they flow to an infrared fixed point or to a confining vacuum, respectively. As in the Klebanov-Strassler solution, on the gravity side the mass gap is generated by the smooth collapse to zero size of a cycle in the internal geometry. We uncover a rich phase diagram with thermal phase transitions of first and second order, a triple point and a critical point.
We explain how to obtain Klabanov-Strassler solution in the low-energy limit of type IIB superstring theory and describe slow-roll inflation on the system of parallely-separated D3-brane and D3bar-brane in the Klebanov-Strassler background.
We study deformations of the Klebanov-Strassler background parametrized by the size of a dim-6 VEV. In the UV, these solutions describe the usual duality cascade of Klebanov-Strassler; however below the scale rho* set by the dim-6 VEV they exhibit hyperscaling violation over a range of the radial coordinate. Focusing on the spectrum of scalar glueballs, we find a parametrically light state, the mass of which is suppressed by rho*, becoming massless in the limit of rho* -> infinity. Along the way, we clarify the choice of IR and UV boundary conditions for the fluctuations in the bulk, and find …
In this note we study vector fluctuations over the Klebanov-Strassler type IIB supergravity solution that are even under the I-conjugation. We are interested only in the states invariant under the global SU(2)x SU(2) symmetry. Apart from the glueball dual to the R-current there is one more 1++ state, which is a member of a massive vector multiplet containing also a scalar 0++. Combined with previous results, our analysis allows to complete the list of low energy singlet supermultiplets in the Klebanov-Strassler theory.
We discuss a regular non-supersymmetric deformation of the Klebanov-Strassler solution related to gaugino mass terms in the dual gauge theory. We also describe the Penrose limit of the new background and the corresponding plane wave string theory.
In string theory, higher rank antisymmetric tensor fields appear as massless excitations of closed strings. Till date there is no experimental support in favour of their existence. In a stringy framework, starting from a warped throat-like Klebanov-Strassler geometry, we show that all the massless higher rank antisymmetric tensor fields are heavily suppressed due to the background fluxes leading to their invisibility in our Universe.
Anti-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 a la Polchinski-Strassler. In this paper we show that there is no polarization into anti-D5-branes wrapping the $S^2$ 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 land…
We study the two-dimensional space of supergravity solutions corresponding to non-supersymmetric deformations of the baryonic branch of Klebanov-Strassler. By combining analytical methods with a numerical survey of the parameter space, we find that this solution space includes as limits the softly-broken N=1 solutions of Gubser et al. and those of Dymarsky and Kuperstein. We also identify a one-dimensional family of solutions corresponding to a natural non-supersymmetric generalisation of Klebanov-Strassler, and one corresponding to the limit in which supersymmetry is completely absent, even i…
We construct the T-dual of the Klebanov-Strassler solution on a small region at the tip of the deformed conifold. The isometry coordinate we choose is the correct one to obtain an NS5 brane wrapping a holomorphic curve in Type IIA, as shown by a thorough analysis of the deformed conifold geometry. The shape of the locus wrapped by the NS5 brane matches the predictions from the Type IIA brane engineering construction dual to the $SU(N+M) \times SU(N)$ cascading gauge theory. The same isometry is then used to T-dualize the solution obtained by adding backreacted D3 branes to the Klebanov-Strassl…
We describe the behaviour of the Wilson loops for wrapped $D5$ systems. We start with the simplest such system possible and then add features to it bit by bit, and show how the Wilson loop is affected by them. This analysis led to the discovery of phase transitions. An interpretation why they occur is given and that knowledge is then used to construct systems with several phase transitions.
In this paper we present new analytic solutions of pure Type IIB supergravity plus D7-branes describing the addition of an arbitrary number of flavors to the Klebanov-Tseytlin and Klebanov-Strassler backgrounds. We provide a precise field theory dual and a detailed analysis of the duality cascade which describes its RG flow. Matchings of beta functions and anomalies between the field theory and the string setup are presented. We give an understanding of Seiberg duality as a large gauge transformation on the RR and NSNS potentials. We also analyze the UV behavior of the field theory, that as su…
We solve for the complete space of linearized deformations of the Klebanov-Strassler background consistent with the symmetries preserved by a stack of anti-D3 branes smeared on the $S^3$ of the deformed conifold. We find that the only solution whose UV physics is consistent with that of a perturbation produced by anti-D3 branes must have a singularity in the infrared, coming from NS and RR three-form field strengths whose energy density diverges. If this singularity is admissible, our solution describes the backreaction of the anti-D3 branes, and is thus likely to be dual to the conjectured me…
We construct explicitly a new class of backgrounds in type-IIB supergravity which generalize the baryonic branch of Klebanov-Strassler. We apply a solution-generating technique that, starting from a large class of solutions of the wrapped-D5 system, yields the new solutions, and then proceed to study in detail their properties, both in the IR and in the UV. We propose a simple intuitive field theory interpretation of the rotation procedure and of the meaning of our new solutions within the Papadopoulos-Tseytlin ansatz, in particular in relation to the duality cascade in the Klebanov-Strassler …
We present the full numerical solution for the 15-dimensional space of linearized deformations of the Klebanov-Strassler background which preserve the SU(2) X SU(2) X Z_2 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 co…
We present an analytic solution of type IIB supergravity plus D7-branes, describing the addition of any number of flavors to the Klebanov-Strassler background. The dual field theory and its self-similar RG flow, described by a cascade of Seiberg dualities also in the presence of flavors, are discussed. The solution indicates that the dual gauge theory enjoys a duality wall in the UV. We stress the correspondence between Seiberg duality on the field theory side, and large gauge transformations on the RR and NSNS potentials on the gravity side. This contribution is mostly based on arxiv:0706.123…
We present a detailed study of the Entanglement Entropy for the confining Klebanov-Strassler background coupled to a large number of dynamical flavors in the Veneziano limit. As we vary the number of the massless flavors the behavior of the entropy strongly depends on the way we fix the integration constant of the warp factor, that is related to the glueball scale. In the case of massive flavors, the mass of the flavor branes introduces another scale in the background and the entropy undergoes two first order phase transitions. The competition between the glueball and the quark scales will lea…
We study a gravity solution corresponding to fivebranes wrapped on the $S^2$ of the resolved conifold. By changing a parameter the solution continuously interpolates between the deformed conifold with flux and the resolved conifold with branes. Therefore, it displays a geometric transition, purely in the supergravity context. The solution is a simple example of torsional geometry and may be thought of as a non-Kähler analog of the conifold. By U-duality transformations we can add D3 brane charge and recover the solution in the form originally derived by Butti et al. This describes the baryonic…
Holographic complexity of the Klebanov-Strassler background
University of Winnipeg（温尼伯大学）；Department of Physics and Winnipeg Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Winnipeg（温尼伯大学物理系与温尼伯理论物理研究所）；University of Toronto（多伦多大学）；Department of Physics, University of Toronto（多伦多大学物理系）；Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics（加拿大理论天体物理研究所）；Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur（坎普尔印度理工学院）；Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur（坎普尔印度理工学院物理系）
We obtain an analytic solution for an axionic non-supersymmetric deformation of the warped deformed conifold. This allows us to study D-strings in the infrared limit of non-supersymmetric deformations of the Klebanov-Strassler background. They are interpreted as axionic strings in the dual field theory. Following the arguments of [hep-th/0405282], the axion is a massless pseudo-scalar glueball which is present in the supergravity fluctuation spectrum and it is interpreted as the Goldstone boson of the spontaneously broken U(1) baryon number symmetry, being the gauge theory on the baryonic bran…
We construct a black hole solution on warped deformed conifold in type IIB supergravity with fluxes. The black hole has translationary invariant horizon and is a holographic dual to a thermal homogeneous and isotropic state of a cascading $SU(K+P)\times SU(K)$ ${\cal N}=1$ supersymmetric gauge theory with spontaneously broken chiral symmetry. We discuss thermal properties of the new black hole solutions. We comment on implications of the new black hole solutions for the landscape of KKLT de Sitter vacua in string theory.
We exhibit a one-parameter family of regular supersymmetric solutions of type IIB theory that interpolates between Klebanov-Strassler (KS) and Maldacena-Nunez (MN). The solution is obtained by applying the supersymmetry conditions for SU(3)-structure manifolds to an interpolating ansatz proposed by Papadopoulos and Tseytlin. Other than at the KS point, the family does not have a conformally-Ricci-flat metric, neither it has self-dual three-form flux. Nevertheless, the asymptotic IR and UV are that of KS troughout the family, except for the extremal value of the interpolating parameter where th…
The Klebanov-Strassler background is invariant under the Z_2 symmetry I, which acts by exchanging the bi-fundamental fields A and B, accompanied by the charge conjugation. We study the background perturbations in the I-odd sector and find an exhaustive list of bosonic states invariant under the global SU(2)*SU(2) symmetry. In addition to the scalars identified in an earlier publication arXiv:0712.4404 we find 7 families of massive states of spin 1. Together with the spin 0 states they form 3 families of massive vector multiplets and 2 families of massive gravitino multiplets, containing a vect…
We discuss the $0^{+-}$ singlet sector of glueballs in the Klebanov-Strassler theory. We report the results of a numerical study of the linearized equations in the Klebanov-Strasller background and make a comparison with the spectrum of the scalar sector. While for four towers of the total six towers of massive pseudoscalar states our results match the spectrum of the corresponding towers of scalars, the values for the remaining two towers diverge with those of the scalars. We discuss possible interpretations of this divergence.
We present a fully backreacted D3-D7 supergravity solution dual to the Klebanov-Strassler cascading gauge theory coupled to a large number of massive dynamical flavors in the Veneziano limit. The mass of the flavors can be larger or smaller than the dynamically generated scale. The solution is always regular at the origin of the radial coordinate and as such it can be suitably employed to explore the rich IR physics of the dual gauge theory. In this paper we focus on the static quark-antiquark potential, the screening of chromoelectric charges induced by the dynamical flavors, the flux tube br…
Recently, Dymarsky, Kuperstein and Sonnenschein constructed an embedding of flavor D7- and anti-D7-branes in the Klebanov-Strassler geometry that breaks the supersymmetry of the background, yet is stable. In this article, we study in detail the spectrum of vector mesons in this new model of flavor chiral symmetry breaking and commence an analytical analysis of the scalar mesons in this setup.
We discuss a supergravity description of the metastable state that is created by a stack of anti-D3-branes placed at the tip of the KS background. When the number p of the anti-D3-branes is large g_s p >> 1 the characteristic curvature of the corresponding gravity dual is large in stringy units and one may expect the background to be regular everywhere. Starting from the distances of order R ~ (g_s p)^{1/4} away from the tip the new background can be well approximated by a linear perturbation around KS. By applying the appropriate boundary conditions in both IR and UV we found the lowest KK mo…
In this paper we describe a pseudoscalar subsector of the Klebanov-Strassler model. This subsector completes the holographic reconstruction of the spectrum of the lowest-lying glueball states, which are singlet under the global symmetry group $SU(2)\times SU(2)$. We derive the linearized supergravity equations for the pseudoscalar fluctuations and analyze their spectrum. The system of equation is shown to be compatible with six eigenmodes, as expected from supersymmetry. Our numerical analysis allows to reliably extract four of the corresponding towers. Their values match well the eigenvalues …
Within gauge/gravity duality, we compute the scalar and tensor mass spectrum in the boundary theory defined by the five-dimensional sigma-model coupled to gravity obtained by constraining to eight scalars the truncation on T$^{1,1}$ that corresponds to the Papadopoulos-Tseytlin (PT) ansatz. We study fluctuations around the 1-parameter family of backgrounds that lift to the baryonic branch of the Klebanov-Strassler (KS) system, and interpolates between the KS background and the Maldacena-Nunez one (CVMN). We adopt a gauge invariant formalism in the treatment of the fluctuations that we interpre…
In this sequel to [L-Y1], [L-L-S-Y], and [L-Y2] (respectively arXiv:0709.1515 [math.AG], arXiv:0809.2121 [math.AG], and arXiv:0901.0342 [math.AG]), we study a D-brane probe on a conifold from the viewpoint of the Azumaya structure on D-branes and toric geometry. The details of how deformations and resolutions of the standard toric conifold $Y$ can be obtained via morphisms from Azumaya points are given. This should be compared with the quantum-field-theoretic/D-brany picture of deformations and resolutions of a conifold via a D-brane probe sitting at the conifold singularity in the work of Kle…
We study the cosmology induced on a brane probing a warped throat region in a Calabi-Yau compactification of type IIB string theory. For the case of a BPS D3-brane probing the Klebanov-Strassler warped deformed conifold, the cosmology described by a suitable brane observer is a bouncing, spatially flat Friedmann-Robertson-Walker universe with time-varying Newton's constant, which passes smoothly from a contracting to an expanding phase. In the Klebanov-Tseytlin approximation to the Klebanov-Strassler solution the cosmology would end with a big crunch singularity. In this sense, the warped defo…
We discuss confining k strings in four dimensional gauge theories using D5 branes in AdS5xS5, and D3 branes in Klebanov-Strassler and Maldacena-Nunez backgrounds. We present two results: The first that confining k string tensions in N=4 can be calculated using D5 branes in AdS5xS5 with a cut-off in the bulk AdS. Using an embedding of R2 times S4 in S5, we show that the D5 brane replicates a string of rank k in the antisymmetric representation. The second result shows that the S-Dual calculation to hep-th/0111078 reproduces the action in the Klebanov-Strassler and Maldacena-Nunez backgrounds ex…
Building on earlier results on holographic bulk dynamics in confining gauge theories, we compute the spin-0 and spin-2 spectra of gauge theories dual to the non-singular Maldacena-Nunez and Klebanov-Strassler supergravity backgrounds. We construct and apply a numerical recipe for computing mass spectra from certain determinants. In the Klebanov-Strassler case, states containing the glueball and gluinoball obey "quadratic confinement", i.e. their mass-squareds depend on consecutive number as m^2 ~ n^2 for large n, with a universal proportionality constant. The hardwall approximation appears to …
Two recent results indicate that the addition of supersymmetry-breaking ingredients can destabilize the Klebanov-Strassler warped deformed conifold throat. The first comes from an analytic treatment of the interaction between anti-D3 branes and the complex-structure modulus corresponding to the deformation of the conifold [arXiv:1809.06861]. The second comes from the numeric construction of Klebanov-Strassler black holes [arXiv:1809.08484], which stop existing above a certain value of the non-extremality. We show that in both calculations the destabilization energies have the same parametric d…
Conifold geometries have recieved a lot of attention in string theory and string-inspired cosmology recently, in particular the Klebanov-Strassler background that is known as the "warped throat". It is our intention in this article to give a pedagogical explanation for the singularity resolution in this geometry and emphasise its connection to geometric transitions. The first part focuses on the gauge theory dual to the Klebanov-Strassler background, which we also explain from a T-dual intersecting branes scenario. We then make the connection to the Gopakumar-Vafa conjecture for open/closed st…
We use blackfold methods to analyse the properties of putative supergravity solutions in M-theory that describe the backreaction of polarised anti-M2 branes (namely, M5 branes wrapping three-cycles with negative M2-brane charge) in the Cvetic-Gibbons-Lu-Pope background of eleven-dimensional supergravity. At zero temperature we recover the metastable state of Klebanov and Pufu directly in supergravity. At finite temperature we uncover a previously unknown pattern of mergers between fat or thin M5-brane states with the thermalised version of the metastable state. At sufficiently small values of …
We consider warped type IIB supergravity solutions with three-form flux and ${\cal N}=1$ supersymmetry, which arise as the supergravity duals of confining gauge theories. We first work in a perturbation expansion around $AdS_5 \times S^5$, as in the work of Polchinski and Strassler, and from the ${\cal N}=1$ conditions and the Bianchi identities recover their first-order solution generalized to an arbitrary ${\cal N}=1$ superpotential. We find the second order dilaton and axion by the same means. We also find a simple family of exact solutions, which can be obtained from solutions found by Bec…
Solutions with anti-D3 branes in a Klebanov-Strassler geometry with positive charge dissolved in fluxes have a certain singularity corresponding to a diverging energy density of the RR and NS-NS three-form fluxes. There are many hopes and arguments for and against this singularity, and we attempt to settle the issue by examining whether this singularity can be cloaked by a regular event horizon. This is equivalent to the existence of asymptotically Klebanov-Tseytlin or Klebanov-Strassler black holes whose charge measured at the horizon has the opposite sign to the asymptotic charge. We find th…
We study D7 brane probes holomorphically embedded in the Klebanov-Strassler model. Analyzing the $κ$-symmetry condition for D7 branes wrapping a 4-cycle of a deformed conifold we find configurations that do not break N=1 supersymmetry of the background. We compute the fluctuations of the probe around one of these configurations and obtain the spectrum of vector and scalar flavored mesons in the dual gauge theory. The spectrum is discrete and exhibits a mass gap.
We use light-like Wilson loops and the AdS/CFT correspondence to compute the anomalous dimensions of twist two operators in the cascading (Klebanov-Strassler) theory. The computation amounts to find a minimal surface in the UV region of the KS background which is described by the Klebanov-Tseytlin solution. The result is similar to the one for SU(N), N=4 SYM but with N replaced by an effective, scale dependent N. We perform also a calculation using a rotating string and find agreement. In fact we use a double Wick rotated version of the rotating string solution which is an Euclidean world-shee…
We study Vafa's geometric transition and Klebanov - Strassler solution from various points of view in M-theory. In terms of brane configurations, we show the detailed equivalences between the two models. In some limits, both models have an alternative realization as fourfolds in M-theory with appropriate G-fluxes turned on. We discuss some aspects of the fourfolds including how to see the transition and a possible extension to the non-supersymmetric case.
Placing D3 or anti-D3-branes at the tip of the Klebanov-Strassler background results in uplifting the baryonic branch of the moduli space of the dual field theory. In this paper we derive a mass formula for the scalar particle associated with the motion along the baryonic branch, from both open and closed string points of view. We show that both methods give the same mass at linear order in number of (anti)D3-branes, thus providing a comprehensive check for the recently found linearized supergravity solution describing backreacting anti-D3-branes at the tip.
We study the N = 2 supersymmetric analog of the Klebanov-Strassler system. We first review the resolution of singularities by the enhancon mechanism, and the physics of fractional branes on an orbifold. We then describe the exact N = 2 solution. This exhibits a duality cascade as in the N = 1 case, but the singularity resolution is the characteristic N = 2 enhancon. We discuss some related solutions and open issues.
We incorporate massive flavored fundamental quarks in the supergravity dual of N=1 SYM by introducing D7 brane probes to the Klebanov Strassler background. We find probe configurations that solve the D7 equations of motion. We compute the quadratic fluctuations of the D7 brane and extract the spectrum of vector and pseudo scalar flavored mesons. The spectra found are discrete and exhibit a mass gap of the order of the glueball mass.
In this paper we study the spectra of glueballs on the Klebanov-Strassler background and its extension to the baryonic branch. We numerically calculate the mass spectrum of glueballs from the spin 2 ``gravity'' multiplet, which contains the traceless part of the stress-energy tensor and the transverse part of the U(1) R-current. The mass spectra of the corresponding fluctuations in supergravity coincide due to supersymmetry, which is manifest in the effective five-dimensional theory through a Supersymmetric Quantum Mechanics transformation. We show that the glueball spectra grow as m^2 ~ Un^2 …
We study the stringy description of N=1 supersymmetric SU(N) gauge theory on R^{1,2} X S^1. Our description is based on the known Klebanov-Strassler and Maldacena-Nunez solutions, properly modified to account for the compact dimension. The presence of this circle turns out to be a non trivial modification and it leads us to consider the up-lifted eleven dimensional solution. We discuss some of its properties. Perhaps the most interesting one is that extra BPS M-branes are present. These generate a non-perturbative superpotential that we explicitly compute. Our findings, besides their interest …
We study the gravitational signatures that arise from compactifying Type IIB supergravity on a compact space containing a Klebanov-Strassler warped throat. After reviewing the dimensional reduction of the 10d graviton and explicitly obtaining the equations of motion for the 4d tensor $h_{μν}$, vector $h_{μn}$ and scalar $h_{mn}$ modes, we find the masses and wavefunctions of the Kaluza-Klein tower of spin-2 states. We explore how the masses and wavefunctions depend on the balance between the strength of the warping and the size of the bulk, and how these relate to the range and strength of the…
We show that the entanglement of purification and the critical distance between the two mixed systems is a powerful measure in probing the phase structures of QCD and confining backgrounds, as it can distinguish the scale of chiral symmetry breaking versus the scale of confinement/deconfinement phase transitions. For two symmetric strips with equal and finite width and infinite length, and in the background of several confining geometries, we numerically calculate the critical distance between them where the mutual information vanishes and show that this quantity can probe the very rich phase …
We present numerical evidence for a transition between the Klebanov-Strassler background and a solution describing a black hole in the class of cascading solutions in the chirally restored phase. We also present a number of properties of this solution, including the running of the coupling constant, the viscosity to entropy ratio and the drag force on a quark moving in this background.
We perform a systematic analysis of the D-brane charges associated with string theory realizations of d=3 gauge theories, focusing on the examples of the N=4 supersymmetric U(N)xU(N+M) Yang-Mills theory and the N=3 supersymmetric U(N)xU(N+M) Yang-Mills-Chern-Simons theory. We use both the brane construction of these theories and their dual string theory backgrounds in the supergravity approximation. In the N=4 case we generalize the previously known gravitational duals to arbitrary values of the gauge couplings, and present a precise mapping between the gravity and field theory parameters. In …
