Quantum phase transitions in cascading gauge theory Original Research Article

We study image supersymmetric image cascading gauge theory of Klebanov et al. (2000) on image at zero temperature, and at the origin of the baryonic branch. A radius of image sets a compactification scale μ. An interplay between μ and the strong coupling scale Λ of the theory leads to an interesting pattern of quantum phases of the system. For image the vacuum state of the theory is chirally symmetric. At image the theory undergoes the first-order transition to a phase with spontaneous breaking of the chiral symmetry. We further demonstrate that the chirally symmetric state of cascading gauge theory becomes perturbatively unstable at scales below image. Finally, we point out that for image the stress–energy tensor of cascading gauge theory can source inflation of a closed Universe.