A stable non-BPS configuration from intersecting branes and antibranes

Abstract

We describe a tachyon-free stable non-BPS brane configuration in type-IIA string theory. The configuration is an elliptic model involving rotated NS5-branes, D4-branes and anti-D4 branes, and is dual to a fractional brane-antibrane pair placed at a conifold singularity. This configuration exhibits an interesting behaviour as we vary the radius of the compact direction. Below a critical radius the D4 and anti-D4 branes are aligned, but as the radius increases above the critical value the potential between them develops a minimum away from zero. This signals a phase transition to a configuration with finitely separated branes.