Quantum phase transitions in cascading gauge theory

Abstract

We study a ground state of N=1 supersymmetric SU(K+P) x SU(K) cascading gauge theory of Klebanov et.al [1,2] on R x S^3 at zero temperature. A radius of S^3 sets a compactification scale mu. An interplay between mu and the strong coupling scale Lambda of the theory leads to an interesting pattern of quantum phases of the system. For mu > mu_cSB=1.240467(8)Lambda the ground state of the theory is chirally symmetric. At mu=mu_cSB the theory undergoes the first-order transition to a phase with spontaneous breaking of the chiral symmetry. We further demonstrate that the chirally symmetric ground state of cascading gauge theory becomes perturbatively unstable at scales below mu_c=0.950634(5)mu_cSB. Finally, we point out that for mu < 1.486402(5)Lambda the stress-energy tensor of cascading gauge theory can source inflation of a closed Universe.