Non-BPS instability in heterotic M-theory

We study the warped geometry of heterotic M-theory in five dimensions where five-branes are included in the bulk, Five-branes wrapping holomorphic curves lead to BPS configurations where the junction conditions are automatically satisfied. We consider five-branes wrapped around non-supersymmetric cycles and show that the configuration is unstable, We describe explicitly the resulting time-dependent geometry where the bulk five-branes move towards the Horova-Witten boundary walls. The five-branes collide with the boundary walls in a finite time resulting in the restoration of supersymmetry. (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.