arXiv subjects

Daniel Junghans

Publications and source records attributed to Daniel Junghans.

28 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2015

Brane Curvature Corrections to the $\mathcal{N}=1$ Type II/F-theory Effective Action

We initiate a study of corrections to the Kähler potential of $\mathcal{N}=1$ type II/F-theory compactifications that arise from curvature terms in the action of D-branes and orientifold planes. We first show that a recently proposed correction to the Kähler coordinates, which was argued to appear at order $α^{\prime 2}g_s$ and be proportional to the intersection volume of D7-branes and O7-planes, is an artifact of an inconvenient field basis in the dual M-theory frame and can be removed by a field redefinition of the 11D metric. We then analyze to what extent curvature terms in the DBI and WZ action may still lead to corrections of a similar kind and identify two general mechanisms that can potentially modify the volume dependence of the Kähler potential in the presence of D-branes and O-planes. The first mechanism is related to an induced Einstein-Hilbert term on warped brane worldvolumes, which leads to a shift in the classical volume of the compactification manifold. The resulting corrections are generic and can appear at one-loop order on branes and O-planes of various dimensions and for configurations with or without intersections. We discuss in detail the example of intersecting D7-branes/O7-planes, where a correction can appear already at order $α^{\prime 2}g_s^2$ in the Kähler potential. Due to an extended no-scale structure, however, it is then still subleading in the scalar potential. We also discuss a second mechanism, which is due to an induced D3-brane charge in the WZ action of D7-branes. Contrary to the first type of corrections, it appears at open string tree-level and shifts the definition of the Kähler coordinates in terms of the classical volume but leaves the volume itself uncorrected. Our work has implications for moduli stabilization and model building and suggests interesting generalizations to F-theory.

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arXiv2014

Curvature-induced Resolution of Anti-brane Singularities

We study AdS$_7$ vacua of massive type IIA string theory compactified on a 3-sphere with $H_3$ flux and anti-D6-branes. In such backgrounds, the anti-brane backreaction is known to generate a singularity in the $H_3$ energy density, whose interpretation has not been understood so far. We first consider supersymmetric solutions of this setup and give an analytic proof that the flux singularity is resolved there by a polarization of the anti-D6-branes into a D8-brane, which wraps a finite 2-sphere inside of the compact space. To this end, we compute the potential for a spherical probe D8-brane on top of a background with backreacting anti-D6-branes and show that it has a local maximum at zero radius and a local minimum at a finite radius of the 2-sphere. The polarization is triggered by a term in the potential due to the AdS curvature and does therefore not occur in non-compact setups where the 7d external spacetime is Minkowski. We furthermore find numerical evidence for the existence of non-supersymmetric solutions in our setup. This is supported by the observation that the general solution to the equations of motion has a continuous parameter that is suggestive of a modulus and appears to control supersymmetry breaking. Analyzing the polarization potential for the non-supersymmetric solutions, we find that the flux singularities are resolved there by brane polarization as well.

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arXiv2014

Dynamics of warped flux compactifications with backreacting anti-branes

We revisit the effective low-energy dynamics of the volume modulus in warped flux compactifications with anti-D3-branes in order to analyze the prospects for meta-stable de Sitter vacua and brane inflation along the lines of KKLT/KKLMMT. At the level of the 10d supergravity solution, anti-branes in flux backgrounds with opposite charge are known to source singular terms in the energy densities of the bulk fluxes, which led to a debate on the consistency of such constructions in string theory. A straightforward yet non-trivial check of the singular solution is to verify that its dimensional reduction in the large-volume limit reproduces the 4d low-energy dynamics expected from known results where the anti-branes are treated as a probe. Taking into account the anti-brane backreaction in the effective scalar potential, we find that both the volume scaling and the coefficient of the anti-brane uplift term are in exact agreement with the probe potential if the singular fluxes satisfy a certain near-brane boundary condition. This condition can be tested explicitly and may thus help to decide whether flux singularities should be interpreted as pathological or benign features of flux compactifications with anti-branes. Throughout the paper, we also comment on a number of subtleties related to the proper definition of warped effective field theory with anti-branes.

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arXiv2013

Backreaction of Localised Sources in String Compactifications

Localised sources such as D-branes or orientifold planes play an important role in many string compactifications that are relevant for phenomenology. The presence of these objects typically induces complicated dynamics in the compact dimensions such that a full solution to the 10d equations of motion is often out of reach. In order to still be able to make statements about the 4d effective theory arising in the low-energy limit, the equations of motion are usually only solved in an integrated sense, while the backreaction of the localised sources on the internal fields is neglected. This simplification is often referred to as smearing. In this work, we investigate to what extent smearing may affect observables in the effective low-energy theory and whether it may lead to fake solutions that would cease to exist once the backreaction is properly taken into account. We analyse explicit examples for which smeared solutions exist and find that the reliability of the smeared approximation appears to depend on whether or not these solutions saturate a BPS bound. We also address the proposal of placing anti-D3-branes at the tip of a warped throat geometry like the Klebanov-Strassler solution in order to construct meta-stable de Sitter vacua in string theory. We show that, under a few general assumptions, the backreaction of the fully localised anti-branes yields a singularity in fields that do not directly couple to them, and we give an argument suggesting that the singularity is not resolved by brane polarisation. We furthermore demonstrate that, in many string compactifications involving non-trivial background fluxes, the effective lower-dimensional cosmological constant is determined by the on-shell action of the localised sources present in the solution. This often allows to compute the cosmological constant without resorting to potentially unreliable approximations like smearing.

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arXiv2013

Cosmological Constant, Near Brane Behavior and Singularities

We show that the classical cosmological constant in type II flux compactifications can be written as a sum of terms from the action of localized sources plus a specific contribution from non-trivial background fluxes. Exploiting two global scaling symmetries of the classical supergravity action, we find that the flux contribution can in many interesting cases be set to zero such that the cosmological constant is fully determined by the boundary conditions of the fields in the near-source region. This generalizes and makes more explicit previous arguments in the literature. We then discuss the problem of putting \bar{D3}-branes at the tip of the Klebanov-Strassler throat glued to a compact space in type IIB string theory so as to engineer a de Sitter solution. Our result for the cosmological constant and a simple global argument indicate that inserting a fully localized and backreacting \bar{D3}-brane into such a background yields a singular energy density for the NSNS and RR 3-form field strengths at the \bar{D3}-brane. This argument does not rely on partial smearing of the \bar{D3}-brane or a linearization of field equations, but on a few general assumptions that we also discuss carefully.

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arXiv2012

Persistent anti-brane singularities

Anti-D-branes inserted in warped throat geometries (supported by fluxes that carry D-brane charges) develop unphysical singularities. It has been argued that these singularities could be resolved when one goes beyond the linearized approximation or includes the effects of brane polarization. In this paper we consider anti-D6 branes, whose singularities have been shown to exist at the full non-linear level, and demonstrate that there is no D8 brane polarization that can resolve the singularity. We comment on the potential implications of this result for the resolution of anti-D3 brane singularities in the Klebanov-Strassler geometry.

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arXiv2012

On Cosmological Constants from alpha'-Corrections

We examine to what extent perturbative alpha'-corrections can generate a small cosmological constant in warped string compactifications. Focusing on the heterotic string at lowest order in the string loop expansion, we show that, for a maximally symmetric spacetime, the alpha'-corrected 4D scalar potential has no effect on the cosmological constant. The only relevant terms are instead higher order products of 4D Riemann tensors, which, however, are found to vanish in the usual perturbative regime of the alpha'-expansion. The heterotic string therefore only allows for 4D Minkowski vacua to all orders in alpha', unless one also introduces string loop and/or nonperturbative corrections or allows for curvatures or field strengths that are large in string units. In particular, we find that perturbative alpha'-effects cannot induce weakly curved AdS_4 solutions.

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arXiv2012

(Anti-)Brane backreaction beyond perturbation theory

We improve on the understanding of the backreaction of anti-D6-branes in a flux background that is mutually BPS with D6-branes. This setup is analogous to the study of the backreaction of anti-D3-branes inserted in the KS throat, but does not require us to smear the anti-branes or do a perturbative analysis around the BPS background. We solve the full equations of motion near the anti-D6-branes and show that only two boundary conditions are consistent with the equations of motion. Upon invoking a topological argument we eliminate the boundary condition with regular H flux since it cannot lead to a solution that approaches the right kind of flux away from the anti-D6-brane. This leaves us with a boundary condition which has singular, but integrable, H flux energy density.

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arXiv2011

The problematic backreaction of SUSY-breaking branes

In this paper we investigate the localisation of SUSY-breaking branes which, in the smeared approximation, support specific non-BPS vacua. We show, for a wide class of boundary conditions, that there is no flux vacuum when the branes are described by a genuine delta-function. Even more, we find that the smeared solution is the unique solution with a regular brane profile. Our setup consists of a non-BPS AdS_7 solution in massive IIA supergravity with smeared anti-D6-branes and fluxes T-dual to ISD fluxes in IIB supergravity.

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arXiv2010

Smeared versus localised sources in flux compactifications

We investigate whether vacuum solutions in flux compactifications that are obtained with smeared sources (orientifolds or D-branes) still survive when the sources are localised. This seems to rely on whether the solutions are BPS or not. First we consider two sets of BPS solutions that both relate to the GKP solution through T-dualities: (p+1)-dimensional solutions from spacetime-filling Op-planes with a conformally Ricci-flat internal space, and p-dimensional solutions with Op-planes that wrap a 1-cycle inside an everywhere negatively curved twisted torus. The relation between the solution with smeared orientifolds and the localised version is worked out in detail. We then demonstrate that a class of non-BPS AdS_4 solutions that exist for IASD fluxes and with smeared D3-branes (or analogously for ISD fluxes with anti-D3-branes) does not survive the localisation of the (anti) D3-branes. This casts doubts on the stringy consistency of non-BPS solutions that are obtained in the limit of smeared sources.

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