Nonsupersymmetric brane configurations, Seiberg duality, and dynamical symmetry breaking

We consider type IIA brane configurations, similar to those that realize SO(2N) supersymmetric QCD, that include orientifold planes and antibranes. Such brane configurations lead to Sp(2N) field theories that become supersymmetric in the large-N limit and break supersymmetry upon the inclusion of 1/N corrections. We argue that this class of field theories admits Seiberg duality and interpret the potential between branes and orientifolds as field theory phenomena. In particular, we find in the magnetic theory a meson potential that leads to dynamical symmetry breaking and a meson condensate similar to the anticipated quark condensate in QCD.