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Modication of wood is carried out to increase the durability and dimensional stability of wood, and one of the modication methods is acetylation. Acetylation of wood means that polymers in the cell wall react with acetic anhydride. Today, acetylated wood is rarely used in load-bearing structures and there are only a few studies on how the fracture characteristics are affected by acetylation. A study found in the literature indicates a 15-20 % reduction of the fracture energy in acetylated spruce compared to untreated spruce. Due to the small number of studies made, it is important to increase the knowledge of how acetylation affects fracture characteristics in order to determine whether acetylation is a useful modication method for structural applications. In this dissertation, an investigation is made on how birch is affected by acetylation, both through a numerical and an experimental study. A literature study is presented which includes a description of the micro and macro structures of wood, the acetylation process, basic fracture mechanics and a background of the nite element method. The experimental work, based on a Nordtest method, is performed to determine the fracture energy of the specimens. Values of the fracture energy are then used to calibrate the FE-models. 40 specimens were tested, half of which were untreated and half acetylated. The specimens had either rectangular or triangular shaped cross-section areas exposed to tension perpendicular to the grain, in order to investigate whether the geometry of the tested cross-section affected the outcome of stable or unstable response. The acetylated birch showed a 12 % higher mean value of the density than the untreated birch. The mean moisture content was 3 % in the acetylated wood and 11 % in the untreated. From the experimental work, a 55 % reduction of the mean value of fracture energy was obtained for the acetylated birch compared to the untreated birch. When comparing the results from the numerical mod, Av miljö- och hållbarhetsmässiga skäl finns idag ett ökat intresse att använda trä som byggnadsmaterial. Björk har historiskt sett inte används i lastbärande strukturer på grund av dålig beständighet och låg formstabilitet. Genom den kemiska modifieringsprocessen acetylering, kan båda dessa egenskaperna förbättras. För att kunna använda det modifierade träet i lastbärande strukturer måste man dock veta hur andra egenskaper, så som brottenergin, påverkas.

String theory models of axion monodromy inflation exhibit scalar potentials which are quadratic for small values of the inflaton field and evolve to a more complicated function for large field values. Oftentimes the large field behaviour is gentler than quadratic, lowering the tensor-to-scalar ratio. This effect, known as flattening, has been observed in the string theory context through the properties of the DBI+CS D-brane action. We revisit such flattening effects in type IIB flux compactifications with mobile D7-branes, with the inflaton identified with the D7-brane position. We observe that, with a generic choice of background fluxes, flattening effects are larger than previously observed, allowing to fit these models within current experimental bounds. In particular, we compute the cosmological observables in scenarios compatible with closed-string moduli stabilisation, finding tensor-to-scalar ratios as low as r ∼ 0.04. These are models of single field inflation in which the inflaton is much lighter than the other scalars through a mild tuning of the compactification data. © 2017, The Author(s).

We develop the path integral formalism for studying cosmological perturbations in multi-field inflation, which is particularly well suited to study quantum theories with gauge symmetries such as diffeomorphism invariance. We formulate the gauge fixing conditions based on the Poisson brackets of the constraints, from which we derive two convenient gauges that are appropriate for multi-field inflation. We then adopt the in-in formalism to derive the most general expression for the power spectrum of the curvature perturbation including the corrections from the interactions of the curvature mode with other light degrees of freedom. We also discuss the contributions of the interactions to the bispectrum.

We study weakly coupled U(1) theories in AdS(3), their associated charged BTZ solutions, and their charged spectra. We find that modular invariance of the holographic dual two-dimensional CFT and compactness of the gauge group together imply the existence of charged operators with conformal dimension significantly below the black hole threshold. We regard this as a form of the Weak Gravity Conjecture (WGC) in three dimensions. We also explore the constraints posed by modular invariance on a particular discrete a"currency sign (N) symmetry which arises in our discussion. In this case, modular invariance does not guarantee the existence of light a"currency sign (N) -charged states. We also highlight the differences between our discussion and the usual heuristic arguments for the WGC based on black hole remnants.

We use holographic techniques to compute inflationary non-Gaussianities for general single-field inflation, including models with a non-trivial sound speed. In this holographic approach, the inflationary dynamics is captured by a relevant deformation of the dual conformal field theory (CFT) in the UV, while the inflationary correlators are computed by conformal perturbation theory. In this paper, we discuss the effects of higher derivative operators, such as (a, (mu) I center dot a, (mu) I center dot) (m) , which are known to induce a non-trivial sound speed and source potentially large non-Gaussianities. We compute the full inflationary bispectra from the deformed CFT correlators. We also discuss the squeezed limit of the bispectra from the viewpoint of operator product expansions. As is generic in the holographic description of inflation, our power spectrum is blue tilted in the UV region. We extend our bispectrum computation to the IR region by resumming the conformal perturbations to all orders. We provide a self-consistent setup which reproduces a red tilted power spectrum, as well as all possible bispectrum shapes in the slow-roll regime. © 2016, The Author(s).

We study the possibility of a heavy scalar or pseudoscalar in TeV-scale beyond the Standard Model scenarios being the inflaton of the early universe in light of the recent O(750) GeV diphoton excess at the LHC. We consider a scenario in which the new scalar or pseudoscalar couples to the Standard Model gauge bosons at the loop level through new massive Standard Model charged vectorlike fermions with or without dark fermions. We calculate the renormalization group running of both the Standard Model and the new scalar couplings, and present two different models that are perturbative, with a stabilized vacuum up to near the Planck scale. Thus, the Standard Model Higgs and this possible new resonance may still preserve the minimalist features of Higgs inflation.

We point out that kinetic and Stückelberg mixings that are generically present in the low energy effective action of axions can significantly widen the window of axion decay constants. We show that an effective super-Planckian decay constant can be obtained even when the axion kinetic matrix has only sub-Planckian entries. Our minimal model involves only two axions, a Stückelberg U(1) and a modest rank instanton generating non-Abelian group. Below the mass of the Stückelberg U(1), there is only a single axion with a nonperturbatively generated potential. In contrast to previous approaches, the enhancement of the axion decay constant is not tied to the number of degrees of freedom introduced. We also discuss how kinetic mixings can lower the decay constant to the desired axion dark matter window. String theory embeddings of this scenario and their phenomenological features are briefly discussed. © 2015 American Physical Society. © 2015 American Physical Society.

In this note we show that models of natural inflation based on closed string axions are incompatible with the weak gravity conjecture (WGC). Specifically, we use T-duality in order to map the bounds on the charge-to-mass ratio of particles imposed by the WGC, to constraints on the ratio between instanton actions and axion decay constants. We use this connection to prove that if the WGC holds, even when multiple axions are present and mix with each other, one cannot have large axion decay constants while remaining in a regime of perturbative control. We also discuss the extension of the WGC to discrete symmetries and its possible impact on models with axion monodromy, and the distinction between the strong and mild versions of the WGC. Finally, we offer some speculations regarding the import of these results to the general theory of inflation.

The remarkable recent discovery of the Higgs boson at the CERN Large Hadron Collider completed the Standard Model of particle physics and has paved the way for understanding the physics which may lie beyond it. String/M theory has emerged as a broad framework for describing a plethora of diverse physical systems, which includes condensed matter systems, gravitational systems as well as elementary particle physics interactions. If string/M theory is to be considered as a candidate theory of Nature, it must contain an effectively four-dimensional universe among its solutions that is indistinguishable from our own. In these solutions, the extra dimensions of string/M theory are "compactified" on tiny scales which are often comparable to the Planck length. String phenomenology is the branch of string/M theory that studies such solutions, relates their properties to data, and aims to answer many of the outstanding questions of particle physics beyond the Standard Model.This book contains perspectives on string phenomenology from some of the leading experts in the field. Contributions will range from pedagogical general overviews and perspectives to more technical reviews. We hope that the reader will get a sense of the significant progress that has been made in the field in recent years (e.g. in the topic of moduli stabilization) as well as the topics currently being researched, outstanding problems and some perspectives for the future.

We discuss the effective field theory for spacetime symmetry breaking from the local symmetry point of view. By gauging spacetime symmetries, the identification of Nambu-Goldstone (NG) fields and the construction of the effective action are performed based on the breaking pattern of diffeomorphism, local Lorentz, and (an) isotropic Weyl symmetries as well as the internal symmetries including possible central extensions in nonrelativistic systems. Such a local picture distinguishes, e.g., whether the symmetry breaking condensations have spins and provides a correct identification of the physical NG fields, while the standard coset construction based on global symmetry breaking does not. We illustrate that the local picture becomes important in particular when we take into account massive modes associated with symmetry breaking, the masses of which are not necessarily high. We also revisit the coset construction for spacetime symmetry breaking. Based on the relation between the Maurer-Cartan one form and connections for spacetime symmetries, we classify the physical meanings of the inverse-Higgs constraints by the coordinate dimension of broken symmetries. Inverse Higgs constraints for spacetime symmetries with a higher dimension remove the redundant NG fields, whereas those for dimensionless symmetries can be further classified by the local symmetry breaking pattern.

We initiate a study of corrections to the Kahler potential of N = 1 type II/Ftheory compactifications that arise from curvature terms in the action of D-branes and orientifold planes. We first show that a recently proposed correction to the Kahler coordinates, which was argued to appear at order alpha'2gs and be proportional to the intersection volume of D7-branes and O7-planes, is an artifact of an inconvenient field basis in the dual M-theory frame and can be removed by a field redefinition of the 11D metric. We then analyze to what extent curvature terms in the DBI and WZ action may still lead to corrections of a similar kind and identify two general mechanisms that can potentially modify the volume dependence of the Kahler potential in the presence of D-branes and O-planes. The first mechanism is related to an induced Einstein-Hilbert term on warped brane worldvolumes, which leads to a shift in the classical volume of the compactification manifold. The resulting corrections are generic and can appear at one-loop order on branes and O-planes of various dimensions and for configurations with or without intersections. We discuss in detail the example of intersecting D7-branes/O7-planes, where a correction can appear already at order alpha'2gs2 in the Kahler potential. Due to an extended no-scale structure, however, it is then still subleading in the scalar potential. We also discuss a second mechanism, which is due to an induced D3-brane charge in the WZ action of D7-branes. Contrary to the first type of corrections, it appears at open string tree-level and shifts the definition of the Kahler coordinates in terms of the classical volume but leaves the volume itself uncorrected. Our work has implications for moduli stabilization and model building and suggests interesting generalizations to F-theory.

The inflationary cosmology paradigm is very successful in explaining the CMB anisotropy to the percent level. Besides the dependence on the inflationary model, the power spectra, spectral tilt and non-Gaussianity of the CMB temperature fluctuations also depend on the initial state of inflation. Here, we examine to what extent these observables are affected by our ignorance in the initial condition for inflationary perturbations, due to unknown new physics at a high scale M. For initial states that satisfy constraints from backreaction, we find that the amplitude of the power spectra could still be significantly altered, while the modification in bispectrum remains small. For such initial states, M has an upper bound of a few tens of H, with H being the Hubble parameter during inflation. We show that for M ∼ 20H, such initial states always (substantially) suppress the tensor to scalar ratio. In particular we show that such a choice of initial conditions can satisfactorily reconcile the simple m2φ2 chaotic model with the Planck data [1-3].

The continuous shift symmetry of axions is at the heart of several realizations of inflationary models. In particular, axion monodromy inflation aims at achieving super-Planckian field ranges for the inflaton in the context of string theory. Despite the elegant underlying principle, explicit models constructed hitherto are exceedingly complicated. We propose a new and better axion monodromy inflationary scenario, where the inflaton potential arises from an F-term. We present several scenarios, where the axion arises from the Kaluza-Klein compactification of higher dimensional gauge fields (or p-form potentials) in the presence of fluxes and/or torsion homology. The monodromy corresponds to a change in the background fluxes, and its F-term nature manifests in the existence of domain walls interpolating among flux configurations. Our scenario leads to diverse inflaton potentials, including linear large field behaviour, chaotic inflation, as well as potentials with even higher powers. They provide an elegant set of constructions with properties in the ballpark of the recent BICEP2 observational data on primordial gravitational waves.

Highly beamed, short-duration electromagnetic bursts could be produced by superconducting cosmic string (SCS) loops oscillating in cosmic magnetic fields. We demonstrated that the basic characteristics of SCS bursts such as the electromagnetic frequency and the energy release could be consistently exhibited in the recently discovered fast radio bursts (FRBs). Moreover, it is first showed that the redshift distribution of the FRBs can also be well accounted for by the SCS burst model. Such agreements between the FRBs and SCS bursts suggest that the FRBs could originate from SCS bursts and thus they could provide an effective probe to study SCSs. The obtained values of model parameters indicate that the loops generating the FRBs have a small length scale and they are mostly formed in the radiation-dominated cosmological epoch.

We discuss a mechanism of particle production during inflation that can result in a blue gravitational wave (GW) spectrum, compatible with the BICEP2 result and with the r < 0.11 limit on the tensor-to-scalar ratio at the Planck pivot scale. The mechanism is based on the production of vector quanta from a rolling pseudo-scalar field. Both the vector and the pseudo-scalar are only gravitationally coupled to the inflaton, to keep the production of inflaton quanta at an unobservable level (the overproduction of non-gaussian scalar perturbations is a generic difficulty for mechanisms that aim to generate a visible GW signal from particle production during inflation). This mechanism can produce a detectable amount of GWs for any inflationary energy scale. The produced GWs are chiral and nongaussian; both these aspects can be tested with large-scale polarization data (starting from Planck). We study how to reconstruct the pseudo-scalar potential from the GW spectrum.

The BICEP2 experiment has announced a signal for primordial gravity waves with tensor-to-scalar ratio r = 0.2(-0.05)(+0.07) [1]. There are two ways to reconcile this result with the latest Planck experiment [2]. One is by assuming that there is a considerable tilt of r, T-r, with a positive sign, T-r = d lnr/d lnk greater than or similar to 0.57(-0.27)(+0.29) corresponding to a blue tilt for the tensor modes of order n(T) similar or equal to 0.53(-0.27)(+0.29), assuming the Planck experiment best-fit value for tilt of scalar power spectrum n(S). The other possibility is to assume that there is a negative running in the scalar spectral index, dn(S)/d lnk similar or equal to -0.02 which pushes up the upper bound on r from 0.11 up to 0.26 in the Planck analysis assuming the existence of a tensor spectrum. Simple slow-roll models fail to provide such large values for T-r or negative runnings in n(S) [1]. In this note we show that a non-Bunch-Davies initial state for perturbations can provide a match between large field chaotic models (like m(2)phi(2)) with the latest Planck result [3] and BICEP2 results by accommodating either the blue tilt of r or the negative large running of n(S). (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.

We explore the correlations between correlation functions of the primordial curvature perturbation produced during inflation. We find that for general single field inflation, other than the source terms which depend on the model details, higher order correlation functions are characterized by the power spectrum, its spectral index and running. The correlation between the bispectrum and power spectrum is presented as an explicit example of our systematic approach.

We construct explicit string theory models realizing the recently proposed "Stückelberg Portal" scenario, a framework for building Z mediation models without the need to introduce unwanted exotic matter charged under the Standard Model. This scenario can be viewed purely field-theoretically, although it is particularly well motivated from string theory. By analyzing carefully the Stückelberg couplings between the Abelian gauge bosons and the RR axions, we construct the first global intersecting brane models which extend the Standard Model with a genuine hidden sector, to which it is nonetheless connected via U(1) mass mixings. Utilizing the explicit models we construct, we discuss some broad phenomenological properties and experimental implications of this scenario such as Z - Z mixings, dark matter stability and relic density, and supersymmetry mediation. With an appropriate confining hidden sector, our setup also provides a minimal realization of the hidden valley scenario. We further explore the possibility of obtaining small Z masses from a large ensemble of U(1) bosons. Related to the Stückelberg portal are two mechanisms that connect the visible and the hidden sectors, namely mediation by non-perturbative operators and the hidden photon scenario, on which we briefly comment. © 2014 The Author(s).

The stabilisation of the dilaton and volume in tree-level flux compactifications leads to model independent and thus very powerful existence and stability criteria 14 dS solutions. In this paper we show that the sizes of cycles wrapped by orientifold planes are scalars whose scalings in the potential are not entirely model independent, but enough to entail strong stability constraints. For all known dS solutions arising from massive IIA supergravity flux compactifications on SU(3)-structure manifolds the tachyons are exactly within the subspace spanned by the dilaton, the total volume and the volumes of the orientifold cycles. We illustrate this in detail for the well-studied case of the O6 plane compactification on SU(2) x SU(2)/Z(2) x Z(2). For that example we uncover another novel structure in the tachyon spectrum: the dS solutions have a singular, but supersymmetric, Minkowski limit, in which the tachyon exactly aligns with the sgoldstino.

We examine the millicharged dark matter scenario from a string theory perspective. In this scenario, kinetic and mass mixings of the photon with extra U(1) bosons are claimed to give rise to small electric charges, carried by dark matter particles, whose values are determined by continuous parameters of the theory. This seems to contradict folk theorems of quantum gravity that forbid the existence of irrational charges in theories with a single massless gauge field. By considering the underlying structure of the U(1) mass matrix that appears in type II string compactifications, we show that millicharges arise exclusively through kinetic mixing, and require the existence of at least two exactly massless gauge bosons.

We investigate the symmetry constraints on the bispectrum, i.e. the three-point correlation function of primordial density fluctuations, in slow-roll inflation. It follows from the defining property of slow-roll inflation that primordial correlation functions inherit most of their structure from weakly broken de Sitter symmetries. Using holographic techniques borrowed from the AdS/CFT correspondence, the symmetry constraints on the bispectrum can be mapped to a set of stress-tensor Ward identities in a weakly broken 2+1-dimensional Euclidean CFT. We construct the consistency condition from these Ward identities using conformal perturbation theory. This requires a second order Ward identity and the use of the evolution equation. Our result also illustrates a subtle difference between conformal perturbation theory and the slow-roll expansion.

We work out the exact in g(s) and perturbatively exact in alpha' result for the vector multiplet moduli Kahler potential in a specific N = 2 compactification of F-theory. The well-known alpha'(3) correction is absent, but there is a rich structure of corrections at all even orders in alpha'. Moreover, each of these orders independently displays an SL(2; Z) invariant set of corrections in the string coupling constant. This generalizes earlier findings to the case of a non-trivial elliptic fibration. Our results pave the way for the analysis of quantum corrections in the more complicated N = 1 context, and may have interesting implications for the study of moduli stabilization in string theory.

We derive a theoretical upper bound on the oscillation frequency in the scalar perturbation power spectrum of single-field inflation. Oscillations are most naturally produced by modified vacua with varying phase. When this phase changes rapidly, it induces strong interactions between the scalar fluctuations. If the interactions are sufficiently strong the theory cannot be evaluated using perturbation theory, hence imposing a limit on the oscillation frequency. This complements the bound found by Weinberg governing the validity of effective field theory. The generalized consistency relation also allows one to use squeezed configurations of higher-point correlations to place constraints on the power spectrum oscillations.

The search for classically stable Type IIA de Sitter vacua typically starts with an ansatz that gives Anti-de Sitter supersymmetric vacua and then raises the cosmological constant by modifying the compactification. As one raises the cosmological constant, the couplings typically destabilize the classically stable vacuum, so the probability that this approach will lead to a classically stable de Sitter vacuum is Gaussianly suppressed. This suggests that classically stable de Sitter vacua in string theory (at least in the Type IIA region), especially those with relatively high cosmological constants, are very rare. The probability that a typical de Sitter extremum is classically stable (i.e., tachyon-free) is argued to be Gaussianly suppressed as a function of the number of moduli.

We study the possibility that particle production during inflation could source observable gravity waves on scales relevant for cosmic microwave background experiments. A crucial constraint on such scenarios arises because particle production can also source inflaton perturbations and might ruin the usual predictions for a nearly scale-invariant spectrum of nearly Gaussian curvature fluctuations. To minimize this effect, we consider two models of particle production in a sector that is only gravitationally coupled to the inflaton. For a single instantaneous burst of massive particle production, we find that localized features in the scalar spectrum and bispectrum might be observable, but gravitational wave signatures are unlikely to be detectable (due to the suppressed quadrupole moment of nonrelativistic quanta) without invoking some additional effects. We also consider a model with a rolling pseudoscalar that leads to a continuous production of relativistic gauge field fluctuations during inflation. Here we find that gravitational waves from particle production can actually exceed the usual inflationary vacuum fluctuations in a regime where non-Gaussianity is consistent with observational limits. In this model observable B-mode polarization can be obtained for any choice of inflaton potential, and the amplitude of the signal is not necessarily correlated with the scale of inflation.

We revisit the analysis of effective field theories resulting from non-supersymmetric perturbations to supersymmetric flux compactifications of the type-IIB superstring with an eye towards those resulting from the backreaction of a small number of (D3) over bar -branes. Independently of the background, we show that the low-energy Lagrangian describing the fluctuations of a stack of probe D3-branes exhibits soft supersymmetry breaking despite perturbations to marginal operators that were not fully considered in some previous treatments. We take this as an indication that the breaking of supersymmetry by (D3) over bar -branes or other sources may be spontaneous rather than explicit. In support of this, we consider the action of an (D3) over bar -brane probing an otherwise supersymmetric configuration and identify a candidate for the corresponding goldstino.

We identify a two-parameter family of excited states within slow-roll inflation for which either the corrections to the two-point function or the characteristic signatures of excited states in the three-point function - i.e. the enhancement for the flattened momenta configurations- are absent. These excited states may nonetheless violate the adiabaticity condition maximally. We dub these initial states of inflation calm excited states. We show that these two sets do not intersect, i.e., those that leave the power-spectrum invariant can be distinguished from their bispectra, and vice versa. The same set of calm excited states that leave the two-point function invariant for slow-roll inflation, do the same task for DBI inflation. However, at the level of three-point function, the calm excited states whose flattened configuration signature is absent for slow-roll inflation, will lead to an enhancement for DBI inflation generally, although the signature is smaller than what suggested by earlier analysis. This example also illustrates that imposing the Wronskian condition is important for obtaining a correct estimate of the non-Gaussian signatures.

We analyze the wavefunctions for open strings stretching between intersecting 7-branes in type IIB/F-theory warped compactifications, as a first step in understanding the warped effective field theory of 4d chiral fermions. While in general the equations of motion do not seem to admit a simple analytic solution, we provide a method for solving the wavefunctions in the case of weak warping. The method describes warped zero modes as a perturbative expansion in the unwarped spectrum, the coefficients of the expansion depending on the warping. We perform our analysis with and without the presence of worldvolume fluxes, illustrating the procedure with some examples. Finally, we comment on the warped effective field theory for the modes at the intersection.

We present further no-go theorems for classical de Sitter vacua in Type II string theory, i.e., de Sitter constructions that do not invoke non-perturbative effects or explicit supersymmetry breaking localized sources. By analyzing the stability of the 4D potential arising from compactification on manfiolds with curvature, fluxes, and orientifold planes, we found that additional ingredients, beyond the minimal ones presented so far, are necessary to avoid the presence of unstable modes. We enumerate the minimal setups for (meta)stable de Sitter vacua to arise in this context. © SISSA 2011.

We explore the effects of heavy degrees of freedom on the evolution and perturbations of light modes in multifield inflation. We use a simple two-field model as an example to illustrate the subtleties of integrating out massive fields in a time-dependent background. We show that when adiabaticity is violated due to a sharp turn in field space, the roles of massive and massless field are interchanged, and furthermore the fields are strongly coupled; thus the system cannot be described by an effective single-field action. Further analysis shows that the sharp turn imparts a non-Bunch-Davis component in each perturbation mode, leading to oscillatory features in the power spectrum, and a large resonantly enhanced bispectrum.

We elaborate on the construction of de Sitter solutions from IIA orientifolds of SU(3)-structure manifolds that solve the 10-dimensional equations of motion at tree-level in the approximation of smeared sources. First we classify geometries that are orbifolds of a group manifold covering space which, upon the proper inclusion of O6 planes, can be described within the framework of N = 1 supergravity in 4D. Then we scan systematically for de Sitter solutions, obtained as critical points of an effective 4D potential. Apart from finding many new solutions we emphasize the challenges in constructing explicit classical de Sitter vacua, which have sofar not been met. These challenges are interesting avenues for further research and include finding solutions that are perturbatively stable, satisfy charge and flux quantization, and have genuine localized (versus smeared) orientifold sources. This paper intends to be self-contained and pedagogical, and thus can serve as a guide to the necessary technical tools required for this line of research. In an appendix we explain how to study flux and charge quantization in the presence of a non-trivial H-field using twisted homology. (C) 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim

We analyze properties of non-supersymmetric, isometry-preserving perturbations to the infrared region of the warped deformed conifold, i.e. the Klebanov-Strassler solution. We discuss both perturbations that "squash" the geometry, so that the internal space is no longer conformally Calabi-Yau, and perturbations that do not squash the geometry. Among the perturbations that we discuss is the solution that describes the linearized near-tip backreaction of a smeared collection of (D3) over bar -branes positioned in the deep infrared. Such a configuration is a candidate gravity dual of a non-supersymmetric state in a large-rank cascading gauge theory. Although (D3) over bar -branes do not directly couple to the 3-form flux, we argue that, due to the presence of the background imaginary self-dual flux, (D3) over bar -branes in the Klebanov-Strassler geometry necessarily produce singular non-imaginary self-dual flux. Moreover, since conformally Calabi-Yau geometries cannot be supported by non-imaginary self-dual flux, the (D3) over bar -branes squash the geometry as our explicit solution shows. We also briefly discuss supersymmetry-breaking perturbations at large radii and the effect of the non-supersymmetric perturbations on the gravitino mass. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.