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arXiv · hep-th/0106008

Brane Splitting via Quantum Tunneling

Selena Ng·Malcolm Perry
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Abstract

We study the two-centred AdS_7 x S^4 solution of eleven-dimensional supergravity using the Euclidean path-integral approach, and find that it can be interpreted as an instanton, signalling the splitting of the throat of the M5 brane. The instanton is interpreted as indicating a coherent superposition of the quantum states corresponding to classically distinct solutions. This is a surprising result since it leads, through the AdS/CFT correspondence, to contradictory implications for the dual (2,0) superconformal field theory on the M5 brane. We also argue that similar instantons should exist for other branes in ten- and eleven-dimensional supergravity. The counterterm subtraction technique for gravitational instantons, which arose from the AdS/CFT correspondence, is examined in terms of its applicability to our results. Connections are also made to the work of Maldacena et al on anti-de Sitter fragmentation.

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Selena Ng, Malcolm Perry. 2002-04-26. Brane Splitting via Quantum Tunneling. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0550-3213(02)00346-2

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