Speakers
Daniele Musso
(ICTP, Trieste)
Stefano Massai
(LMU, Munich)
Description
The lectures will give a pedagogical introduction to various aspects of anti-brane supersymmetry breaking in string theory.
The first part is based on the holographic standpoint meant both as an application to study QFT at strong coupling and as a mean of investigation of bulk physics from a dual perspective. Symmetry and supersymmetry breaking patterns are encoded in the Ward identity structure of a QFT. Holographic models realize such a structure at strong coupling through a precise holographic renormalization program. This setting is suitable to describe neatly supersymmetry breaking at strong coupling and the appearance of the goldstino in a wide and general context. The application of these techniques to cascading gauge theories offers a powerful way to study anti-branes placed in conifold bulk geometries and characterize their supersymmetry breaking.
In the second part we will discuss the dynamics of anti-branes in flux compactifications, their decay channels and the quest for long-lived metastable vacua in string theory. We will cover the following topics:
• The backreaction of anti-branes in warped throats
• Infrared dynamics and vacuum stability
• Applications: de Sitter uplift and black hole microphysics.
