Calculable mass hierarchies and a light dilaton from gravity duals

Abstract

In the context of gauge/gravity dualities, we calculate the scalar and tensor mass spectrum of the boundary theory defined by a special 8-scalar sigma-model in five dimensions, the background solutions of which include the 1-parameter family dual to the baryonic branch of the Klebanov–Strassler field theory. This provides an example of a strongly-coupled, multi-scale system that yields a parametrically light mass for one of the composite scalar particles: the dilaton. We briefly discuss the implications of these findings towards identifying a satisfactory solution to both the big and little hierarchy problems of the electro-weak theory.