Remarks on brane and antibrane dynamics

Abstract

We develop the point of view that brane actions should be understood in the context of effective field theory, and that this is the correct way to treat classical as well as loop divergences. We illustrate this idea in a simple model. We then consider the implications for the dynamics of antibranes in flux backgrounds, focusing on the simplest case of a single antibrane. We argue that there is no tachyonic instability at zero temperature, but there is a nonperturbative process in which an antibrane annihilates with its screening cloud. This is distinct from the NS5-brane instanton decay. Constraints on models of metastable supersymmetry breaking by antibranes may be tightened, but there is no problem of principle with this mechanism.