Article

# Massive type IIA string theory cannot be strongly coupled

(Impact Factor: 6.11). 07/2010; DOI: 10.1007/JHEP11(2010)047
Source: arXiv

ABSTRACT

Understanding the strong coupling limit of massive type IIA string theory is
a longstanding problem. We argue that perhaps this problem does not exist;
namely, there may be no strongly coupled solutions of the massive theory. We
show explicitly that massive type IIA string theory can never be strongly
coupled in a weakly curved region of space-time. We illustrate our general
claim with two classes of massive solutions in AdS4xCP3: one, previously known,
with N = 1 supersymmetry, and a new one with N = 2 supersymmetry. Both
solutions are dual to d = 3 Chern-Simons-matter theories. In both these massive
examples, as the rank N of the gauge group is increased, the dilaton initially
increases in the same way as in the corresponding massless case; before it can
reach the M-theory regime, however, it enters a second regime, in which the
dilaton decreases even as N increases. In the N = 2 case, we find
supersymmetry-preserving gauge-invariant monopole operators whose mass is
independent of N. This predicts the existence of branes which stay light even
when the dilaton decreases. We show that, on the gravity side, these states
originate from D2-D0 bound states wrapping the vanishing two-cycle of a
conifold singularity that develops at large N.

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Available from: Alessandro Tomasiello
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• "Thus supergravity description is valid when N is much larger than k. Also, one can see that g s < ℓ s /R, which is in agreement with previous observation that " massive IIA cannot be strongly coupled " [48], in other words, the string coupling must be small if the curvature is small. "
##### Article: Evidence for the Holographic dual of ${\cal N}=3$ Solution in Massive Type IIA
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ABSTRACT: We calculate the Kaluza-Klein spectrum of spin-2 fluctuations around the ${\cal N}=3$ warped ${\rm AdS}_4\times M_6$ solution in massive IIA supergravity. This solution was conjectured to be dual to the $D=3$ ${\cal N}=3$ superconformal ${\rm SU}(N)$ Chern-Simons matter theory with level $k$ and 2 adjoint chiral multiplets. The ${\rm SO}(3)_R\times{\rm SO}(3)_D$ isometry of the ${\cal N}=3$ solution is identified with the ${\rm SU}(2)_F\times {\rm SU}(2)_{\cal R}$ global symmetry of the dual ${\cal N}=3$ SCFT. We show that the ${\rm SO}(3)_R\times{\rm SO}(3)_D$ quantum numbers and the ${\rm AdS}$ energies carried by the BPS spin-2 modes match precisely with those of the spin-2 gauge invariant operators in the short multiplets of operators in the ${\cal N}=3$ SCFT. We also compute the Euclidean action of the ${\cal N}=3$ solution and the free energy of the ${\cal N}=3$ SCFT on $S^3$, in the limit $N\gg k$. Remarkably, the results show a complete agreement.
Preview · Article · Nov 2015
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• "Interestingly, our work is orthogonal to the work [27] [28] [29] [30] where large families of 1 4 - BPS, AdS 4 solutions have been constructed in IIA supergravity with non-vanishing Romans mass [31]. Solutions with non-vanishing Romans mass cannot be lifted to eleven-dimensional supergravity and, conversely, our Ansatz cannot be reduced to supersymmetric solutions of IIA supergravity because the residual U (1) symmetry in our Ansatz is the R-symmetry and so compactification along this U (1) will break the supersymmetry. "
##### Article: On Supersymmetric Flux Solutions of M-theory
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ABSTRACT: Motivated by the geometric structures of supersymmetric holographic RG-flows, we scan for N=2 AdS_4 solutions in M-theory. One particularly well understood holographic RG flow in M-theory is dual to a mass deformation of the N=8 Chern-Simons theory. We utilize an Ansatz which is a natural generalization of this background in our scan. We find a single new solution with non-trivial internal flux and the topology of S^7. Interestingly, despite our Ansatz being quite general, within our system we rule out solutions with internal flux on more general Sasaki-Einstein seven manifolds.
Preview · Article · Jul 2012
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• "In other words, the theory is weakly coupled in a region where the curvature is small so that the supergravity approximation can be trusted. These remarks are in agreement with the general conclusions of [7] where it is argued that IIA supergravity cannot be strongly coupled in a region where the curvature is small. "
##### Article: Supersymmetric AdS vacua and separation of scales
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ABSTRACT: The moduli space of the supersymmetric massive IIA AdS4 × S 2(B4) vacua, where S 2(B4) is a two-sphere bundle over a four-dimensional Kähler-Einstein base B4, includes three independent parameters which can be thought of as corresponding to the sizes of AdS4, B4 and the S 2 fiber. It might therefore be expected that these vacua do not suffer from the absence of scale separation. We show that the independence of the geometric moduli survives flux quantization. However, we uncover an attractor behavior whereby all sizes flow to equality in some neighborhood of spacetime independently of the initial conditions set by the parameters of the solution. This is further confirmed by the study of the ratio of internal to external scalar curvatures. We also show that the asymptotic Kaluza-Klein spectrum of a ten-dimensional massive scalar is governed by a scale of the order of the AdS4 radius. Furthermore we point out that the curvature ratio in supersymmetric IIA AdS4 vacua with rigid SU(3) structure is of order one, indicating the absence of scale separation in this large class of vacua.
Preview · Article · Jun 2012 · Journal of High Energy Physics
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