arXiv subjects

Jesús Huertas

Publications and source records attributed to Jesús Huertas.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Wet Hair: Global Symmetries in Entanglement Islands

A central conjecture in quantum gravity is the non-existence of global symmetries. As a fully unitary theory, there is no information loss in a UV complete quantum gravity theory. We see both these concepts reflected in the AdS/CFT correspondence, which tells us that dynamical processes in AdS are fully captured by a manifestly unitary CFT with no information loss. Furthermore, global symmetries of the CFT are dual to gauge symmetries in the AdS, which implies no global symmetry in the AdS. In this work, we provide concrete evidence for the connection between the non-existence of global symmetries and the absence of information loss in quantum gravity. We study the $\textit{island setups}$ in which a gravitational AdS is coupled with a nongravitational bath on its boundary. In such theories, the information in the AdS can be lost to the bath. We provide concrete examples with global symmetries in the island setup, from both the bottom-up and the top-down perspectives. We argue that these global symmetries are consistent due to $\textit{entanglement islands}$, in which holography is realized in a novel fashion. The global symmetries we construct are all mixed with spontaneously broken gauge symmetries. We will show that this fact has two implications: $\textbf{1)}$ The black hole hair is detectable in the bath (``wet hair"); $\textbf{2)}$ a resolution of a puzzle proposed by Harlow and Shaghoulian.

hep-th↗

arXiv2025

SymTFT Fans: The Symmetry Theory of 4d N=4 Super Yang-Mills on spaces with boundaries

The SymTFT construction is an efficient way of studying the symmetries of Quantum Field Theories. In this paper we initiate the study of the SymTFT construction for interacting theories on spaces with boundaries, in the concrete example of $d = 4$ $\mathcal{N} = 4$ Super Yang-Mills theory with Gaiotto-Witten boundary conditions. The resulting SymTFT has a number of peculiarities, most prominently a fan-like structure with a number of different SymTFT sectors joined by gapless interfaces that merge at the Gaiotto-Witten boundary SCFT.

hep-th↗

arXiv2025

Relative Quantum Gravity: Localized Gravity and the Swampland

We perform a systematic study of the applicability of swampland constraints to theories of localized gravity. We find that these gravity theories can violate swampland constraints, but can be reconciled with them when coupled to a higher-dimensional gravity theory. They realize what we call $\textit{relative quantum gravity}$: to become consistent at the quantum level, these gravity theories must be defined as $\textit{relative}$ to a host higher-dimensional gravity theory. We show that these theories can admit global symmetries, even anomalous ones; they can violate the cobordism, completeness, weak gravity, and distance conjectures; they may admit stable non-supersymmetric AdS vacua, or dS vacua. All swampland constraints are however satisfied when these gravity theories are regarded as relative and completed by coupling them to a higher-dimensional one. We discuss these properties in $d$-dimensional gravity theories localized on Karch-Randall End of the World (ETW) boundaries of AdS$_{d+1}$ spacetime. For AdS$_d$ ETW branes we use the formalism of double holography to describe the appearance of the species scale and the emergence of gauge dynamics from the quantum backreaction of CFT$_d$ modes. We also study microscopically the swampland constraints in localized gravity in explicit string theory models. Concretely, we exploit the 10d supergravity solutions describing AdS$_4$ ETW branes for AdS$_5\times\mathbf{S}^5$, holographically dual to semi-infinite D3-branes ending on NS5- and D5-brane configurations, realizing 4d $\mathcal{N}=4$ $SU(N)$ on half-space coupled to a 3d Gaiotto-Witten superconformal boundary CFT$_3$.

hep-th↗

arXiv2024

End of the World Brane Dynamics in Holographic 4d $\mathcal{N}=4$ SU(N) with 3d $\mathcal{N}=2$ Boundary Conditions

We consider 4d $\mathcal{N}=4$ $SU(N)$ super Yang-Mills on half-space with boundary conditions defined by configurations of Gaiotto-Witten NS5- and D5-branes modded out by a rotated orientifold 5-plane breaking an extra half of the supersymmetries. We focus on configurations in which this O5'-brane is split by an NS5-brane into two oppositely charged halves, leading to a breaking of supersymmetry down to 3d $\mathcal{N}=2$ at the local level. The 5-brane configurations turn into non-trivial $(p,q)$ webs and lead to non-trivial brane and gauge theory phenomena, including a 5d $\mathbf{Z}_2$ global gauge anomaly cancelled by a novel 6d global anomaly inflow, and the appearance of localized 3d $\mathcal{N}=2$ Chern-Simons couplings and the 3d parity anomaly at the boundary of the 4d theory. The systems have explicit gravity duals, given by orientifolds of the AdS$_4\times\mathbf{S}^2\times\mathbf{S}^2$ fibrations over a Riemann surface dual to the Gaiotto-Witten setups. They describe solutions with an asymptotic AdS$_5\times\mathbf{S}^5$ terminating at AdS$_4$ End of the World boundary configurations, whose rich dynamics reproduces the above physical properties. They also provide the SymTFT of the 4d $\mathcal{N}=4$ on half-space with a new class of boundary conditions. We explore the interplay of bulk and boundary topological couplings and draw general lessons for the classification of cobordism defects of bulk quantum gravity theories in the swampland program.

hep-th↗

arXiv2023

Aspects of Dynamical Cobordism in AdS/CFT

The cobordism conjecture implies that consistent theories of Quantum Gravity must admit the introduction of boundaries. We study the dynamical realization of the cobordism conjecture in type IIB in AdS$_5\times \bf{S}^5$, using the existing gravity duals of 4d $\mathcal{N}=4$ SYM with Gaiotto-Witten superconformal boundary conditions (near-horizon limits of D3-branes ending on NS5- and D5-branes). We show that these configurations are, from the 5d perspective, dynamical cobordism solutions which start from an asymptotic AdS$_5$ vacuum and evolve until they hit an end of the world (ETW) brane with AdS$_4$ worldvolume. The latter displays localization of gravity, and provide a completion of the Karch-Randall (KR) AdS branes, in which the backreaction of running scalars replace the KR cusp in the warp factor with a smooth bump. The dynamical scalars are either in the $SO(6)$ invariant AdS$_5$ bulk sector (e.g. describing the $\bf{S}^5$ size and its shrinking at the cobordism boundary) or brane localized (e.g. the $SO(6)\to SO(3)\times SO(3)$ squashing due to boundary conditions). We introduce a novel double scaling limit which zooms into the ETW brane and makes localization of gravity manifest, and which shows a tantalizing relation with wedge holography. We extend the picture to AdS$_5$ theories with less (super)symmetry, via orbifolds and S-folds, leading to dynamical cobordisms for gravity duals of 4d theories with $\mathcal{N}=2$ and $\mathcal{N}=3$ supersymmetry.

hep-th↗

arXiv2022

At the End of the World: Local Dynamical Cobordism

The Cobordism Conjecture states that any Quantum Gravity configuration admits, at topological level, a boundary ending spacetime. We study the dynamical realization of cobordism, as spacetime dependent solutions of Einstein gravity coupled to scalars containing such end-of-the-world "branes". The latter appear in effective theory as a singularity at finite spacetime distance at which scalars go off to infinite field space distance. We provide a local description near the end-of-the-world branes, in which the solutions simplify dramatically and are characterized in terms of a critical exponent, which controls the asymptotic profiles of fields and the universal scaling relations among the spacetime distance to the singularity, the field space distance, and the spacetime curvature. The analysis does not rely on supersymmetry. We study many explicit examples of such Local Dynamical Cobordisms in string theory, including 10d massive IIA, the 10d non-supersymmetric $USp(32)$ theory, Bubbles of Nothing, 4d $ \mathcal{N}=1 $ cosmic string solutions, the Klebanov-Strassler throat, D$p$-brane solutions, brane configurations related to the D1/D5 systems, and small black holes. Our framework encompasses diverse recent setups in which scalars diverge at the core of defects, by regarding them as suitable end-of-the-world branes. We explore the interplay of Local Dynamical Cobordisms with the Distance Conjecture and other swampland constraints.

hep-th↗