# Metastable Nonextremal Antibranes

Armas, J. (Institute for Theoretical Physics, UVA, 1090 GL Amsterdam, Netherlands) (Dutch Institute for Emergent Phenomena, Netherlands) ; Nguyen, N. (Department of Mathematical Sciences and Centre for Particle Theory Durham University, Durham DH1 3LE, United Kingdom) ; Niarchos, V. (Department of Mathematical Sciences and Centre for Particle Theory Durham University, Durham DH1 3LE, United Kingdom) ; Obers, N. A. (The Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen Blegdamsvej 17, DK-2100 Copenhagen ∅, Denmark) ; Van Riet, T. (Instituut voor Theoretische Fysica, K.U.Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200D, B-3001 Leuven, Belgium)

10 May 2019

Abstract: We find new and compelling evidence for the metastability of supersymmetry-breaking states in holographic backgrounds whose consistency has been the source of ongoing disagreements in the literature. As a concrete example, we analyze anti-$D3$ branes at the tip of the Klebanov-Strassler throat. Using the blackfold formalism we examine how temperature affects the conjectured metastable state and determine whether and how the existing extremal results generalize when going beyond extremality. In the extremal limit we exactly recover the results of Kachru, Pearson, and Verlinde, in a regime of parameter space that was previously inaccessible. Away from extremality we uncover a metastable black Neveu-Schwarz five-brane (NS5) state that disappears near a geometric transition where black anti-$D3$ branes and black NS5 branes become indistinguishable. This is remarkably consistent with complementary earlier results based on the analysis of regularity conditions of backreacted solutions. We therefore provide highly nontrivial evidence for the metastability of antibranes in noncompact throat geometries since we find a consistent picture over different regimes in parameter space.

Published in: Physical Review Letters 122 (2019)