Holographic metastability

Understand

We show how supersymmetric QCD in a slice of AdS can naturally acquire metastable vacua.

• The formulation closely follows that of Intriligator, Seiberg and Shih (ISS), with an "electric" sector on the UV brane and a "magnetic" sector on the IR brane.
• However the 't Hooft anomaly matching that constrains the Seiberg duality central to ISS is replaced by anomaly inflow and cancellation, and the source of strong coupling is the CFT to which the theory couples rather than the gauge groups.
• The theory contains an anomaly free R-symmetry that, when broken by UV effects, leads to an O'Raifeartaigh model on the IR brane.