arXiv subjects

Amitabh Virmani

Publications and source records attributed to Amitabh Virmani.

63 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2008

On the Stress Tensor for Asymptotically Flat Gravity

The recent introduction of a boundary stress tensor for asymptotically flat spacetimes enabled a new construction of energy, momentum, and Lorentz charges. These charges are known to generate the asymptotic symmetries of the theory, but their explicit formulas are not identical to previous constructions in the literature. This paper corrects an earlier comparison with other approaches, including terms in the definition of the stress tensor charges that were previously overlooked. We show that these terms either vanish identically (for d > 4) or take a form that does not contribute to the conserved charges (for d=4). This verifies the earlier claim that boundary stress tensor methods for asymptotically flat spacetimes yield the same conserved charges as other approaches. We also derive some additional connections between the boundary stress tensor and the electric part of the Weyl tensor.

hep-th↗

arXiv2007

Collisions with Black Holes and Deconfined Plasmas

We use AdS/CFT to investigate i) high energy collisions with balls of deconfined plasma surrounded by a confining phase and ii) the rapid localized heating of a deconfined plasma. Both of these processes are dual to collisions with black holes, where they result in the nucleation of a new "arm" of the horizon reaching out in the direction of the incident object. We study the resulting non-equilibrium dynamics in a universal limit of the gravitational physics which may indicate universal behavior of deconfined plasmas at large N_c. Process (i) produces "virtual" arms of the plasma ball, while process (ii) can nucleate surprisingly large bubbles of a higher temperature phase.

hep-th↗

arXiv2007

The Physical Process First Law for Bifurcate Killing Horizons

The physical process version of the first law for black holes states that the passage of energy and angular momentum through the horizon results in a change in area $\fracκ{8 π} ΔA = ΔE - ΩΔJ$, so long as this passage is quasi-stationary. A similar physical process first law can be derived for any bifurcate Killing horizon in any spacetime dimension $d \ge 3$ using much the same argument. However, to make this law non-trivial, one must show that sufficiently quasi-stationary processes do in fact occur. In particular, one must show that processes exist for which the shear and expansion remain small, and in which no new generators are added to the horizon. Thorne, MacDonald, and Price considered related issues when an object falls across a d=4 black hole horizon. By generalizing their argument to arbitrary $d \ge 3$ and to any bifurcate Killing horizon, we derive a condition under which these effects are controlled and the first law applies. In particular, by providing a non-trivial first law for Rindler horizons, our work completes the parallel between the mechanics of such horizons and those of black holes for $d \ge 3$. We also comment on the situation for d=2.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2007

Holographic Renormalization of Gravity in Little String Theory Duals

We perform a holographic renormalization of gravity duals to little string theories. In particular, we construct counterterms which yield a well-defined type II action for NS-sector linear dilaton backgrounds. Our methods are based on a similar recent construction in asymptotically flat spacetimes, and our work demonstrates in detail the parallels between asymptotically flat and linear dilaton boundary conditions. The counterterms guarantee that (i) the on-shell action is finite and (ii) asymptotically linear dilaton solutions are stationary points of the action under all boundary condition preserving variations. We use the resulting action to compute a boundary stress tensor and the associated conserved charges.

hep-th↗

arXiv2007

Dynamics and Stability of Black Rings

We examine the dynamics of neutral black rings, and identify and analyze a selection of possible instabilities. We find the dominating forces of very thin black rings to be a Newtonian competition between a string-like tension and a centrifugal force. We study in detail the radial balance of forces in black rings, and find evidence that all fat black rings are unstable to radial perturbations, while thin black rings are radially stable. Most thin black rings, if not all of them, also likely suffer from Gregory-Laflamme instabilities. We also study simple models for stability against emission/absorption of massless particles. Our results point to the conclusion that most neutral black rings suffer from classical dynamical instabilities, but there may still exist a small range of parameters where thin black rings are stable. We also discuss the absence of regular real Euclidean sections of black rings, and thermodynamics in the grand-canonical ensemble.

hep-th↗

arXiv2006

Covariant Counterterms and Conserved Charges in Asymptotically Flat Spacetimes

Recent work has shown that the addition of an appropriate covariant boundary term to the gravitational action yields a well-defined variational principle for asymptotically flat spacetimes and thus leads to a natural definition of conserved quantities at spatial infinity. Here we connect such results to other formalisms by showing explicitly i) that for spacetime dimension $d \ge 4$ the canonical form of the above-mentioned covariant action is precisely the ADM action, with the familiar ADM boundary terms and ii) that for $d=4$ the conserved quantities defined by counter-term methods agree precisely with the Ashtekar-Hansen conserved charges at spatial infinity.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2005

A black hole instability in five dimensions?

We study the moduli-space scattering of a two-charge supertube in the background of a rotating BPS D1-D5-P black hole in 4+1 dimensions, extending the static analysis of Bena and Kraus (hep-th/0402144). While the magnetic forces associated with this motion change the details considerably, the final conclusion is similar to that of the static analysis: we find that one can bring the supertube to the horizon, so that the BMPV black hole and the supertube merge. However, our analysis shows that this can occur even at significantly larger values of the angular momentum than was indicated by the static analysis. For a range of parameters, conservation laws and the area theorem forbid the result of the merger from being any single known object: neither near-extremal black holes nor non-supersymmetric black rings are allowed. Such results suggest that the merger triggers an instability of the rotating D1-D5-P black hole, perhaps leading to bifurcation into a pair of black objects.

hep-th↗

arXiv2004

Symmetries of Discontinuous Flows and the Dual Rankine-Hugoniot Conditions in Fluid Dynamics

It has recently been shown that the maximal kinematical invariance group of polytropic fluids, for smooth subsonic flows, is the semidirect product of SL(2,R) and the static Galilei group G. This result purports to offer a theoretical explanation for an intriguing similarity, that was recently observed, between a supernova explosion and a plasma implosion. In this paper we extend this result to discuss the symmetries of discontinuous flows, which further validates the explanation by taking into account shock waves, which are the driving force behind both the explosion and implosion. This is accomplished by constructing a new set of Rankine-Hugoniot conditions, which follow from Noether's conservation laws. The new set is dual to the standard Rankine-Hugoniot conditions and is related to them through the SL(2,R) transformations. The entropy condition, that the shock needs to satisfy for physical reasons, is also seen to remain invariant under the transformations.

math-ph↗

arXiv2000

Correlation of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays with Compact Radio Loud Quasars

Angular correlations of ultra-high energy cosmic rays with cosmologically distant sources may provide clues to these mysterious events. We compare cosmic ray tracks with energies above $ 10^{20}eV$ to a compilation of radio-loud compact QSO positions. The statistical method emphasizes invariant quantities and a test of {\it statistical independence} of track and source distributions. Statistical independence is ruled out by several independent statistics at confidence levels of less that $10^{-3}$ ($99.9% $.), indicating that track directions and QSO source positions are correlated at a highly significant level.

astro-ph↗