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Horatiu Nastase

Publications and source records attributed to Horatiu Nastase.

At least 127 records · Page 7Linked to original sources

Moduli flow and non-supersymmetric AdS attractors

We investigate the attractor mechanism in gauged supergravity in the presence of higher derivatives terms. In particular, we discuss the attractor behaviour of static black hole horizons in anti-de Sitter spacetime by using the effective potential approach as well as Sen's entropy function formalism. We use the holographic techniques to interpret the moduli flow as an RG flow towards the IR attractor horizon. We find that the holographic c-function obeys the expected properties and point out some subtleties in understanding attractors in AdS.

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Comments on gluon 6-point scattering amplitudes in N=4 SYM at strong coupling

We use the AdS/CFT prescription of Alday and Maldacena \cite{am} to analyze gluon 6-point scattering amplitudes at strong coupling in ${\cal N}=4$ SYM. By cutting and gluing we obtain AdS 6-point amplitudes that contain extra boundary conditions and come close to matching the field theory results. We interpret them as parts of the field theory amplitudes, containing only certain diagrams. We also analyze the collinear limits of 6- and 5-point amplitudes and discuss the results.

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D=4 Einstein gravity from higher D CS and BI gravity and an alternative to dimensional reduction

An alternative to usual dimensional reduction for gravity is analyzed, in the vielbein-spin connection formulation. Usual 4d Einstein gravity plus a topological term (the "Born-Infeld" Lagrangian for gravity), is shown to be obtained by a generalized dimensional reduction from 5d Chern-Simons gravity. Chern-Simons gravity in d=2n+1 is dimensionally reduced to CS gravity in d=2n-1 via a mechanism similar to descent equations. The consistency of the dimensional reduction in both cases is analyzed. The dimensional reduction of d=2n+2 Born-Infeld gravity to d=2n BI gravity, as well as d=2n BI gravity to d=2n-1 CS gravity is hard to achieve. Thus 4d gravity (plus a topological term) can be embedded into d=2n+1 CS gravity, including 11d CS, whose supersymmetric version could possibly be related to usual 11d supergravity. This raises the hope that maybe 4d quantum Einstein gravity could be embedded in a well defined quantum theory, similar to Witten's treatment of 3d quantum Einstein gravity as a CS theory.

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A "black hole" solution of scalar field theory

A black hole-like solution to a toy model scalar field action for the pion is presented. It has a "horizon" that traps pion field information (it cannot escape in finite time) and is thermal, with a finite and calculable temperature, $T=\sqrt{2}/(πα)$, with $α$ a coupling parameter. The action is a scalar DBI action (D-brane action), coupled to a particular fixed source term. The DBI action by itself has "catenoid" solutions that have horizons with infinite temperature and trap only high energy information. It is also proven that the unique scalar action that admits thermal horizons is of DBI type at leading order, making the D-brane action special. The existence of this "pionless hole" solution means that {\em aparent} information loss is not a feature of gravity theories (via black holes), but even a simple scalar theory can exhibit it. This is as it should, since the "pionless hole" is a toy model for the AdS-CFT dual to a black hole.

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The RHIC fireball as a dual black hole

We argue that the fireball observed at RHIC is (the analog of) a dual black hole. In previous works, we have argued that the large $s$ behaviour of the total QCD cross section is due to production of dual black holes, and that in the QCD effective field theory it corresponds to a nonlinear soliton of the pion field. Now we argue that the RHIC fireball is this soliton. We calculate the soliton (black hole) temperature, and get $T=4a /π$, with $a$ a nonperturbative constant. For $a=1$, we get $175.76 MeV$, compared to the experimental value of the fireball ``freeze-out'' of about $176 MeV$. The observed $η/ s$ for the fireball is close to the dual value of $1/4π$. The ``Color Glass Condensate'' (CGC) state at the core of the fireball is the pion field soliton, dual to the interior of the black hole. The main interaction between particles in the CGC is a Coulomb potential, due to short range pion exchange, dual to gravitational interaction inside the black hole, deconfining quarks and gluons. Thus RHIC is in a certain sense a string theory testing machine, analyzing the formation and decay of dual black holes, and giving information about the black hole interior.

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More on the RHIC fireball and dual black holes

We revisit the issue of the RHIC ``fireball'' as a dual black hole, and explain some of the details. We discuss the nature of the (black hole) information paradox as a purely field theory (gauge theory) phenomenon and how the paradox can be formulated in exactly the same way for the RHIC fireball and a black hole. We stress the differences between the black holes produced in the gravity dual and the equilibrium situation of the Witten construction for finite temperature AdS-CFT. We analyze the thermodynamics of the fireball, give more arguments why $T_{fireball}\propto m_π$, including an effective field theory one, and explain what entropy=area/4 means experimentally for the fireball.

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Constant H field, cosmology and faster than light solitons

We analyze the possibility of having a constant spatial NS-NS field, $H_{123}$. Cosmologically, it will act as stiff matter, and there will be very tight constraints on the possible value of $H_{123}$ today. However, it will give a noncommutative structure with an {\em associative} star product of the type $θ^{ij}=αε^{ijk} x^k$. This will be a fuzzy space with constant radius slices being fuzzy spheres. We find that gauge theory on such a space admits a noncommutative soliton with galilean dispersion relation, thus having speeds arbitrarily higher than c. This is the analogue of the Hashimoto-Itzhaki construction at constant $θ$, except that one has fluxless solutions of arbitrary mass. A holographic description supports this finding. We speculate thus that the presence of constant (yet very small) $H_{123}$, even though otherwise virtually undetectable could still imply the existence of faster than light solitons of arbitrary mass (although possibly quantum-mechanically unstable). The spontaneous Lorentz violation given by $H_{123}$ is exactly the same one already implied by the FRW metric ansatz.

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DBI skyrmion, high energy (large s) scattering and fireball production

We analyze the high energy scattering of hadrons in QCD in an effective theory model inspired from a gravity dual description. The nucleons are skyrmion-like solutions of a DBI action, and boosted nucleons give pions field shockwaves necessary for the saturation of the Froissart bound. Nuclei are analogs of BIon crystals, with the DBI skyrmions forming a fluid with a fixed inter-nucleon distance. In shockwave collisions one creates scalar (pion field) ``fireballs'' with horizons of nonzero temperature, whose scaling with mass we calculated. They are analogous to the hydrodynamic ``dumb holes,'' and their thermal horizons are places where the pion field becomes apparently singular. The information paradox becomes then a purely field theoretic phenomenon, not directly related to quantum gravity (except via AdS-CFT).

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High energy QCD from Planckian scattering in AdS and the Froissart bound

We reanalyze high energy QCD scattering regimes from scattering in cut-off AdS via gravity-gauge dualities (a la Polchinski-Strassler). We look at 't Hooft scattering, Regge behaviour and black hole creation in AdS. Black hole creation in the gravity dual is analyzed via gravitational shockwave collisions. We prove the saturation of the QCD Froissart unitarity bound, corresponding to the creation of black holes of AdS size, as suggested by Giddings.

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The soft Pomeron from AdS-CFT

In previous treatments, high energy QCD was analyzed using AdS-CFT a la Polchinski-Strassler. Black hole production in AdS was responsible for power law behaviour of the total QCD cross section. Using the simplest self-consistent gravity dual assumption, that cut-off $AdS_5$ is supplemented by a 5d space $X_5$ of effective ``average'' size much larger than the scale of $AdS_5$, we find an energy behaviour just before the saturation of the Froissart bound that is $σ_{tot} \sim s^{1/n}= s^{1/11}\simeq s^{0.0909}$. It comes from the solution of the Laplacean on $AdS_{d+1}\times X_{\bar{d}}$ behaving like $1/r^n=1/r^{2(d-1)+\bar{d}}= 1/r^{11}$. We argue that this should be present in real QCD as well, as string corrections to the dual scattering are small, and should onset at about $N_c^2 M_{1, glueball}\sim 10 GeV$. Experimentally, one found the ``soft Pomeron'' behaviour, $σ_{tot}\sim s^{0.093(2)}$, that onsets at about $ 9 GeV$, that was later argued to be replaced by the unitarized Froissart + reaction-dependent constant behaviour. We argue that the soft Pomeron and the dual behaviour represent the same physics, creation of an effective field theory ``soliton''-like structure (=black hole), that then decays, and so they have to be taken seriously. We thus have an experimental prediction of string theory, literally counting the extra dimensions.

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Heisenberg saturation of the Froissart bound from AdS-CFT

In a previous paper, we have analyzed high energy QCD from AdS-CFT and proved the saturation of the Froissart bound (a purely QCD proof of which is still lacking). In this paper we describe the calculation in more physical terms and map it to QCD language. We find a remarkable agreement with the 1952 Heisenberg description of the saturation (pre-QCD!) in terms of shockwave collisions of pion field distributions. It provides a direct map between gauge theory physics and the gravitational physics on the IR brane of the Randall-Sundrum model. Saturation occurs through black hole production on the IR brane, which is in QCD production of a nonlinear pion field soliton of a Born-Infeld action in the hadron collision, that decays into free pions.

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Towards S matrices on flat space and pp waves from SYM

We analyze the possibility of extracting S matrices on pp waves and flat space from SYM correlators. For pp waves, there is a subtlety in defining S matrices, but we can certainly obtain observables. Only extremal correlators survive the pp wave limit. A first quantized string approach is inconclusive, producing in the simplest form results that vanish in the pp wave limit. We define a procedure to get S matrices from SYM correlators, both for flat space and for pp waves, generalizing a procedure due to Giddings. We analyze nonrenormalized correlators: 2 and 3 -point functions and extremal correlators. For the extremal 3-point function, the SYM and AdS results for the S matrix match for the angular dependence, but the energy dependence doesn't.

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On high energy scattering inside gravitational backgrounds

We analyze the high energy scattering inside gravitational backgrounds using 't Hooft's formalism. The scattering is equivalent to geodesic shifts accross Aichelburg-Sexl waves inside the gravitational backgrounds. We find solutions for A-S waves inside various backgrounds and analyze them.

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On fuzzy spheres and (M)atrix actions

In this note we compare even and odd fuzzy sphere constructions, their dimensional reductions and possible (M)atrix actions having them as solutions. We speculate on how the fuzzy 5-sphere might appear as a solution to the pp wave (M)atrix model.

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Planckian scattering effects and black hole production in low $M_{Pl}$ scenarios

We reanalyze the question of black hole creation in high energy scattering via shockwave collisions. We find that string corrections tend to increase the scattering cross-section. We analyze corrections in a more physical setting, of Randall-Sundrum type and of higher dimensionality. We also analyze the scattering inside AdS backgrounds.

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Towards a Chern-Simons M theory of $OSp(1|32)\times OSp(1|32)$

A possible way of defining M theory as the CS theory for the supergroup $OSp(1|32)\times OSp(1|32)$ is investigated, based on the approach by Horava in hep-th/9712130. In the high energy limit (expansion in M), where only the highest ($R^5$) terms survive in the action, the supergroup contracts to the D'Auria-Fre M theory supergroup. Then the contracted equations of motion are solved by the usual 11d supergravity equations of motion, linearized in everything but the vielbein. These two facts suggest that the whole nonlinear 11d sugra should be obtainable somehow in the contraction limit. Type IIB also arises as a contraction of the $OSp(1|32)\times OSp(1|32)$ theory. The presence of a cosmological constant in 11d constraints the parameter M experimentally to be of the order of the inverse horizon size, $1/L_0$. Then the 11d Planck mass $M_{P,11}\sim 10GeV$ (hopefully higher: $>TeV$ due to uncertainties). Unfortunately, the most naive attempt at cosmological implications for the theory is excluded experimentally. Interestingly, the low energy expansion (high M) of the CS theory, truncated to the gravitational sector, gives much better phenomenology.

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Massive IIA String Theory and Matrix Theory Compactification

We propose a Matrix Theory approach to Romans' massive Type IIA supergravity. It is obtained by applying the procedure of Matrix Theory compactifications to Hull's proposal of the Massive Type IIA String Theory as M-Theory on a twisted torus. The resulting Matrix Theory is a super-Yang Mills theory on large N three-branes with a space dependent non-commutativity parameter, which is also independently derived by a T-duality approach. We give evidence showing that the energies of a class of physical excitations of the super-Yang Mills theory show the correct symmetry expected from Massive Type IIA string theory in a lightcone quantization.

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On Dp-Dp+4 systems, QCD dual and phenomenology

D4-D8 and D3-D7 systems are studied and a possible holographic dual of large N QCD (SU(N) gauge fields and fundamental quarks) is sought. A candidate system is found, for which however no explicit solution is available. Susy is broken by having a $D7-\bar{D7}$ condensing to a D5. The mechanism for supersymmetry breaking is then used to try to construct a Standard Model embedding. One can either obtain too few low energy fields or too many. The construction requires TeV scale string theory.

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