Searcharxiv⌕ Search

arXiv subjects

Juan Maldacena

Publications and source records attributed to Juan Maldacena.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
arXiv2023

Islands outside the horizon

We consider an AdS$_2$ black hole in equilibrium with a bath, which we take to have a dual description as (0+1)-dimensional quantum mechanical system coupled to a (1+1)-dimensional field theory serving as the bath. We compute the entropies of both the quantum mechanical degrees of freedom and of the bath separately, while allowing contributions from entanglement wedge "islands". We find situations where the island extends {\it outside} the black hole horizon. This suggests possible causality paradoxes which we show are avoided because of the quantum focusing conjecture. Finally, we formulate a version of the information paradox for a black hole in contact with a bath in the Hartle-Hawking state, and demonstrate the role of islands in resolving this paradox.

hep-th↗
arXiv2023

A simple quantum system that describes a black hole

During the past decades, theorists have been studying quantum mechanical systems that are believed to describe black holes. We review one of the simplest examples. It involves a collection of interacting oscillators and Majorana fermions. It is conjectured to describe a black hole in an emergent universe governed by Einstein equations. Based on previous numerical computations, we make an estimate of the necessary number of qubits necessary to see some black hole features.

hep-th↗
arXiv2023

Holography for people with no time

We study the gravitational description of extremal supersymmetric black holes. We point out that the $AdS_2$ near horizon geometry can be used to compute interesting observables, such as correlation functions of operators. In this limit, the Hamiltonian is zero and correlation functions are time independent. We discuss some possible implications for the gravity description of black hole microstates. We also compare with numerical results in a supersymmetric version of SYK. These results can also be interpreted as providing a construction of wormholes joining two extremal black holes. This is the short version of a longer and more technical companion paper arXiv:2207.00408.

hep-th↗
arXiv2023

Estimating global charge violating amplitudes from wormholes

We consider the scattering of high energy and ultra relativistic spherically symmetric shells in asymptotically AdS$_D$ spacetimes. We analyze an exclusive amplitude where a single spherically symmetric shell goes in and a single one comes out, such that the two have different global symmetry charges of the effective gravity theory. We study a simple wormhole configuration that computes the square of the amplitude and analyze its properties.

hep-th↗
arXiv2022

Accumulation-Point Amplitudes in String Theory

We point out some common qualitative features of the Coon amplitude$\unicode{x2014}$a family of deformations of the Veneziano amplitude with logarithmic Regge trajectories$\unicode{x2014}$and the open string scattering amplitude for strings ending on a D-brane in AdS. Both reduce to the Veneziano amplitude at relatively low energies. Both systems have an accumulation point in their spectrum, with an infinite number of states below a certain energy. The approach to this point is very similar. Both have the same high-energy fixed-angle behavior. Nevertheless, we find some differences in the spectrum of states with highest angular momentum. These similarities suggest that there may exist a string background that realizes the Coon amplitude.

hep-th↗
arXiv2022

Symmetries Near the Horizon

We consider a nearly-AdS$_2$ gravity theory on the two-sided wormhole geometry. We construct three gauge-invariant operators in NAdS which move bulk matter relative to the dynamical boundaries. In a two-sided system, these operators satisfy an SL(2) algebra (up to non-perturbative corrections). In a semiclassical limit, these generators act like SL(2) transformations of the boundary time, or conformal symmetries of the two sided boundary theory. These can be used to define an operator-state mapping. A particular large N and low temperature limit of the SYK model has precisely the same structure, and this construction of the exact generators also applies. We also discuss approximate, but simpler, constructions of the generators in the SYK model. These are closely related to the "size" operator and are connected to the maximal chaos behavior captured by out of time order correlators.

hep-th↗
arXiv2021

On the black hole/string transition

We discuss aspects of the possible transition between small black holes and highly excited fundamental strings. We focus on the connection between black holes and the self gravitating string solution of Horowitz and Polchinski. This solution is interesting because it has non-zero entropy at the classical level and it is natural to suspect that it might be continuously connected to the black hole. Surprisingly, we find a different behavior for heterotic and type II cases. For the type II case we find an obstruction to the idea that the two are connected as classical solutions of string theory, while no such obstruction exists for the heterotic case. We further provide a linear sigma model analysis that suggests a continuous connection for the heterotic case. We also describe a solution generating transformation that produces a charged version of the self gravitating string. This provides a fuzzball-like construction of near extremal configurations carrying fundamental string momentum and winding charges. We provide formulas which are exact in $α'$ relating the thermodynamic properties of the charged and the uncharged solutions.

hep-th↗
arXiv2021

Bra-ket wormholes in gravitationally prepared states

We consider two dimensional CFT states that are produced by a gravitational path integral. As a first case, we consider a state produced by Euclidean $AdS_2$ evolution followed by flat space evolution. We use the fine grained entropy formula to explore the nature of the state. We find that the naive hyperbolic space geometry leads to a paradox. This is solved if we include a geometry that connects the bra with the ket, a bra-ket wormhole. The semiclassical Lorentzian interpretation leads to CFT state entangled with an expanding and collapsing Friedmann cosmology. As a second case, we consider a state produced by Lorentzian $dS_2$ evolution, again followed by flat space evolution. The most naive geometry also leads to a similar paradox. We explore several possible bra-ket wormholes. The most obvious one leads to a badly divergent temperature. The most promising one also leads to a divergent temperature but by making a projection onto low energy states we find that it has features that look similar to the previous Euclidean case. In particular, the maximum entropy of an interval in the future is set by the de Sitter entropy.

hep-th↗
arXiv2021

String scale black holes at large $D$

We study aspects of black holes near the Hagedorn temperature. The large dimension expansion introduced by Soda, Emparan, Grumiller and Tanabe connects them to the well studied two dimensional black hole based on $SL(2)_k/U(1)$. This allows us to explore black holes at string scale temperatures. We argue that the black hole can surpass the Hagedorn temperature, but at a somewhat larger temperature it is likely to turn over to a highly excited string.

hep-th↗
arXiv2021

Proper time to the black hole singularity from thermal one-point functions

We argue that the proper time from the horizon to the black hole singularity can be extracted from the thermal expectation values of certain operators outside the horizon. This works for fields which couple to higher curvature terms, so that they can decay into two gravitons. To extract this time, it is necessary to vary the mass of the field.

hep-th↗
arXiv2020

Traversable wormholes in four dimensions

We present a wormhole solution in four dimensions. It is a solution of an Einstein Maxwell theory plus charged massless fermions. The fermions give rise to a negative Casimir-like energy, which makes the wormhole possible. It is a long wormhole that does not lead to causality violations in the ambient space. It can be viewed as a pair of entangled near extremal black holes with an interaction term generated by the exchange of fermion fields. The solution can be embedded in the Standard Model by making its overall size small compared to the electroweak scale.

hep-th↗
arXiv2020

Humanly traversable wormholes

We point out that there can be humanly traversable wormhole solutions in some previously considered theories for physics beyond the Standard Model, namely the Randall-Sundrum model.

hep-th↗
arXiv2020

SYK wormhole formation in real time

We study the real time formation of the ground state of two coupled SYK models. This is a highly entangled state which is close to the thermofield double state and can be viewed as a wormhole. We start from a high temperature state, we let it cool by coupling to a cold bath. We numerically solve for the large N dynamics. Our main result is that the system forms a wormhole by going through a region with negative specific heat, taking time that is independent of N. The dynamics is smooth everywhere and it seems to follow the equilibrium thermodynamic configurations of the microcanonical ensemble. Also we comment on the relation between this coupled SYK model and Jackiw-Teitelboim gravity theory with bulk fields.

hep-th↗
arXiv2020

Comments on magnetic black holes

We discuss aspects of magnetically charged black holes in the Standard Model. For a range of charges, we argue that the electroweak symmetry is restored in the near horizon region. The extent of this phase can be macroscopic. If $Q$ is the integer magnetic charge, the fermions lead to order $Q$ massless two dimensional fermions moving along the magnetic field lines. These greatly enhance Hawking radiation effects.

hep-th↗
arXiv2020

The entropy of Hawking radiation

In this review, we describe recent progress on the black hole information problem that involves a new understanding of how to calculate the entropy of Hawking radiation. We show how the method for computing gravitational fine-grained entropy, developed over the past 15 years, can be extended to capture the entropy of Hawking radiation. This technique reveals large corrections needed for the entropy to be consistent with unitary black hole evaporation.

hep-th↗
arXiv2020

Replica Wormholes and the Entropy of Hawking Radiation

The information paradox can be realized in anti-de Sitter spacetime joined to a Minkowski region. In this setting, we show that the large discrepancy between the von Neumann entropy as calculated by Hawking and the requirements of unitarity is fixed by including new saddles in the gravitational path integral. These saddles arise in the replica method as complexified wormholes connecting different copies of the black hole. As the replica number $n \to 1$, the presence of these wormholes leads to the island rule for the computation of the fine-grained gravitational entropy. We discuss these replica wormholes explicitly in two-dimensional Jackiw-Teitelboim gravity coupled to matter.

hep-th↗
arXiv2019

The Page curve of Hawking radiation from semiclassical geometry

We consider a gravity theory coupled to matter, where the matter has a higher-dimensional holographic dual. In such a theory, finding quantum extremal surfaces becomes equivalent to finding the RT/HRT surfaces in the higher-dimensional theory. Using this we compute the entropy of Hawking radiation and argue that it follows the Page curve, as suggested by recent computations of the entropy and entanglement wedges for old black holes. The higher-dimensional geometry connects the radiation to the black hole interior in the spirit of ER=EPR. The black hole interior then becomes part of the entanglement wedge of the radiation. Inspired by this, we propose a new rule for computing the entropy of quantum systems entangled with gravitational systems which involves searching for "islands" in determining the entanglement wedge.

hep-th↗