Massless fermionic bound states and the gauge/gravity correspondence

Abstract

We study the equations of motion of fermions in type IIB supergravity in the context of the gauge/gravity correspondence. The main motivation is the search for normalizable fermionic zero modes in such backgrounds, to be interpreted as composite massless fermions in the dual theory. We specialize to backgrounds characterized by a constant dilaton and a self-dual three-form. In the specific case of the Klebanov--Strassler solution we construct explicitly the fermionic superpartner of the Goldstone mode associated with the broken baryonic symmetry. The fermionic equations could also be used to search for goldstinos in theories that break supersymmetry dynamically.