Critical points and phase transitions in 5d compactifications of M-theory

Abstract We study critical points of the BPS mass Z, the BPS string tension Zm, the black hole potential V and the gauged central charge potential P for M-theory compactified on Calabi-Yau three-folds. We first show that the stabilization equations for Z (determining the black hole entropy) take an extremely simple form in five dimensions as opposed to four dimensions. The stabilization equations for Zm are also very simple and determine the size of the infinite adS3throat of the string. The black hole potential in general exhibits two classes of critical points: supersymmetric critical points which coincide with those of the central charge and non-supersymmetric critical points. We then generalize the discussion to the entire extended Kahler cone encompassing topologically different but birationally equivalent Calabi-Yau three-folds that are connected via flop transitions. We examine behavior of the four potentials to probe the nature of these phase transitions. We find that V and P are continuous but not smooth across the flop transition, while Z and its first two derivatives, as well as Zm and its first derivative, are continuous. This in turn implies that supersymmetric stabilization of Z and Zm for a given configuration takes place in at most one point throughout the entire extended Kahler cone. The corresponding black holes (or string states) interpolate between different Calabi-Yau three-folds. At the boundaries of the extended Kahler cone we observe that electric states become massless and/or magnetic strings become tensionless.