3-branes on spaces with R X S2 X S3 topology -: art. no. 086006

We study supergravity solutions representing D3-branes with transverse 6-space having RxS(2)xS(3) topology. We consider regular and fractional D3-branes on a natural one-parameter extension of the standard Calabi-Yau metrics on singular and resolved conifolds. After imposing a Z(2) identification on an angular coordinate these generalized 6D conifolds are nonsingular spaces. The back reaction of D3-branes creates a curvature singularity that coincides with a horizon. In the presence of fractional D3-branes the solutions are similar to the original ones by Klebanov and Tseytlin and Pando Zayas and Tseytlin: the metric has a naked repulson-type singularity located behind the radius where the 5-form flux vanishes. The semiclassical behavior of the Wilson loop suggests that the corresponding gauge theory duals are confining.