arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Julio Oliva.
We show that black hole horizons with non-constant curvature can be constructed in any even dimension, when the source of the Einstein equations is given by the stress-energy tensor of a non-linear sigma model of a particular class
We study the one-loop correction to the entropy of near-extremal black holes in three-dimensional massive gravity at the special point where the theory exhibits a unique maximally symmetric vacuum and non-constant curvature hairy black holes can achieve extremality even in the static case. Focusing on the near-horizon AdS$_2\times S^1$ geometry, we evaluate the contribution of boundary graviton modes that become exact zero modes in the extremal limit. We show that the resulting one-loop partition function generates logarithmic corrections to the semiclassical entropy, providing a new extension to higher-curvature gravity of what has been recently obtained for near-extremal black holes in General Relativity.
We compute the one-loop contribution to the semiclassical partition function of near-extremal, asymptotically AdS black holes in five-dimensional Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity. In the absence of an exact analytic rotating solution at finite Gauss-Bonnet coupling $\alpha$, we restrict to static, charged configurations and evaluate the contribution to $Z_{\text{1-loop}}$ arising from tensor, vector, and $U(1)$ gauge fluctuations. The analysis is based on the spectrum of a generalized Lichnerowicz operator governing linearized perturbations on the near-horizon geometry of the extremal solution, including its deformation by the coupling $\alpha$. In the canonical ensemble, the low-temperature behavior of the one-loop partition function leads to logarithmic corrections to the entropy of the form $\log(T/T_0)$, where the scale $T_0$ depends on both the fluctuation sector and the Gauss-Bonnet coupling. These corrections are controlled by the structure of zero modes of the deformed operator and their splitting at small but finite temperature. Our explicit computation yields a universal low-temperature scaling $Z_{\text{1-loop}}\sim 5 \log T$, where the coefficient arises from the combined contributions of tensor, vector, and $U(1)$ gauge modes, reflecting the corresponding counting of zero modes in each sector.
With the aim of continuing the exploration of near-horizon charges in higher-curvature gravity, searching for sectors leading to universal behaviors, we first provide a thorough revision and formulae of the covariant phase-space method applied to arbitrary gravitational theories containing up to quartic terms in the Riemann tensor in arbitrary dimension. These results can be applied in diverse setups, in particular in the context of $\alpha'$ corrections to String Theory, where it is known that in Type II theories, the first correction to the Einstein-Hilbert Lagrangian goes as $\alpha'^3 \mathcal{R}^4$. Then, we test these formulae for near horizon asymptotic symmetries of the rotating BTZ spacetime where the first law of black hole thermodynamics is consistently recovered. It was recently realized that a subset of these higher curvature gravities do admit black holes with gravitational hair, whose entropy can be microscopically accounted for, as is the case of New Massive Gravity. In this case, the four maximally symmetric vacua of the theory coincide, and the theory acquires an extra gauge symmetry when linearized around such a vacuum. We study the near-horizon asymptotic symmetries and compute the associated charges, both in the static and rotating hairy black holes, extending up to $\mathcal{R}^4$, a work that was previously done only up to a quadratic term. In order to allow for a continuous lecture on the work, we report the explicit expressions of the general Lagrangians in the appendices.
We construct new families of solutions for General Relativity coupled to a general class of non-linear sigma models, some of which can be embedded in supergravity. The solutions include neutral, charged and magnetized black holes with bumpy horizons, bumpy stars, and anisotropic cosmologies in $d\geq 4$ dimensions, as well as black strings and black $p$-branes. We also present a family of time-dependent solutions in $2+1$-dimensions. The construction relies on a set of first-order Bogomol'nyi-Prasad-Sommerfield relations for the coset scalars, that were recently exploited for the construction of bumpy black holes on the non-linear sigma model with homogenous target $SU(2)/U(1)$ in 2601.22914 [hep-th].
In this work, we construct a new family of exact five-dimensional charged and rotating asymptotically Lifshitz black holes. The spacetime solves Einstein equations coupled to a dilaton, two Abelian gauge fields, and axionic scalars supplemented by two generalized Chern-Simons terms. This configuration is characterized by a range of the free dynamical exponent $z$ and possesses nontrivial thermodynamical parameters, where we verify the first law of black hole thermodynamics and derive the corresponding Smarr relation. As an application of this new gravitational background, we then investigate a holographic superconductor in the rotating Lifshitz background. We study the condensation of the scalar operator and the AC conductivity of the dual system. These results show that increasing the rotation parameter suppresses the condensate and weakens the superconducting phase, while increasing the dynamical critical exponent enhances the superconducting order. To the best of our knowledge, these solutions provide the first explicit family of five-dimensional rotating Lifshitz black holes supported simultaneously by electric and axionic charges.
It is well known that there is a region of parameter space where all purely electric, static, dilatonic black holes are unstable within the STU models of maximal supergravity. We show that, for planar black holes, it is possible to complete the thermal phase space with AdS solitons, in such a way that the instability of the black holes signals the onset of confinement in the dual field theory. The analysis is done for the $D=4$ STU model of maximal gauged supergravity which naturally uplift to M-theory on the $S^7$.
Motivated by the recent interest in conformal and duality invariant nonlinear electrodynamics, we study the non-Abelian extension of ModMax electrodynamics. The theory is parameterized by a single dimensionless constant, and it is continuously connected to Yang-Mills theory in its vanishing limit. We show that the theory admits (anti-)self-dual instantons, despite the additional nonlinearities that characterize the non-Abelian ModMax theory. For $SU(2)$, we construct the generalization of the BPST instanton and extend this solution to Euclidean de Sitter and anti-de Sitter backgrounds. In the latter case, the Chern-Pontryagin index depends on the instanton size since the configuration is not a pure gauge at infinity; a property already pointed out in Yang-Mills on negative-curvature backgrounds by Callan and Wilczek. We compute the contribution of the latter to the spectrum of the Dirac operator at the boundary, which is crucial for determining the non-local contributions to the Dirac index. Then, we show that the ansatz constructed with 't Hooft symbols accommodates multi-instantons in the non-Abelian ModMax theory. The system of (anti-)self-dual equations reduces to a single nonlinear equation, which can be perturbatively solved order by order in the parameter that controls the nonlinearity. Following such a strategy, we provide a formal solution for the $N$-instanton configuration to first order in the expansion. Then, we couple non-Abelian ModMax theory to gravity with a conformally coupled scalar field and construct new gravitating solutions that describe Euclidean wormholes and other smooth configurations with secondary hair.
In the near-horizon region, black holes exhibit an infinite-dimensional symmetry reminiscent of the Bondi-Metzner-Sachs (BMS) supertranslations. The conserved charges associated with this symmetry can be computed in gravitational theories of arbitrary spacetime dimension and involving curvature terms of any order. In Lovelock theory, for instance, these charges take the form of nested Lagrangian densities corresponding to topological invariants, each weighted by the supertranslation function -- thus providing a natural generalization of the Wald entropy formula. In four dimensions, the computation of the supertranslation charge reduces to the evaluation of the Jackiw-Teitelboim (JT) action on the two-dimensional spacelike sections of the event horizon.
It has been recently established in \textit{Phys.Lett.B 861 (2025) 139260} that regular, asymptotically flat black holes exist in pure gravity theories in dimension greater than four. We extend this result to asymptotically Anti-de Sitter spacetimes and perform bottom-up holographic explorations: Hawking-Page phase transitions, quasinormal modes of black holes providing decay times of excitations in the finite temperature conformal field theory and U-shaped string probes leading to the quark-antiquark potential in the dual field theory. The gravitational action contains a bared, negative cosmological constant and an Einstein-Hilbert term, supplemented by an infinite series of higher-curvature terms of the family known as Quasi-topological (QT) Lagrangians, leading to a lapse function in terms of infinite series which can be resumed to an analytic function for different coupling choices. The QT terms are defined as those satisfying a Birkhoff's theorem and possessing a holographic c-function, and exist at all orders in the curvature, for arbitrary dimension greater than four. Besides presenting the general formulae, we explore the physics of three specific cases leading to Hayward, Dymnikova and Bardeen-like regular black holes. We also found the field redefinition that permits recasting the $\alpha'^3 W^4$ correction of Type IIB supergravity on $\mathcal{A}_5\times S^5$ as a series of QT terms. Before finishing, beyond holography, we also provide an extended thermodynamic setup, that via variations of the dimensionful $\alpha$ and $L$, allow obtaining the Euler relation between finite thermodynamical quantities for the black hole of the theory.
We show that there is a fast algorithm that embeds hierarchical structures in three-dimensional Minkowski spacetime. The correlation of data ends up purely encoded in the causal structure. Our model relies solely on oriented token pairs -- local hierarchical signals -- with no access to global symbolic structure. We apply our method to the corpus of \textit{WordNet}. We provide a perfect embedding of the mammal sub-tree including ambiguities (more than one hierarchy per node) in such a way that the hierarchical structures get completely codified in the geometry and exactly reproduce the ground-truth. We extend this to a perfect embedding of the maximal unambiguous subset of the \textit{WordNet} with 82{,}115 noun tokens and a single hierarchy per token. We introduce a novel retrieval mechanism in which causality, not distance, governs hierarchical access. Our results seem to indicate that all discrete data has a perfect geometrical representation that is three-dimensional. The resulting embeddings are nearly conformally invariant, indicating deep connections with general relativity and field theory. These results suggest that concepts, categories, and their interrelations, namely hierarchical meaning itself, is geometric.
In the recent paper (Phys.Rev.Lett. 133 (2024) 12, 121601), a higher-order phase transition between the planar, charged, 5-dimensional Reissner-Nordstr\"om-Anti-de Sitter black hole and a hairy black hole solution of the type IIB supergravity was investigated. Here, following a bottom-up approach, we set out to investigate these two phases of the theory by means of the holographic probe that describes a quark-antiquark in the dual gauge theory. We ask ourselves whether studying the quark-antiquark potential suffices to detect the change of behavior at different values of the parameter that controls the phase transition, this parameter being the ratio between the chemical potential and the temperature. We show that, while evaluating the probe on both phases leads to the same value at the point where the transition takes place, there is always one phase that dominates over the other with regard to this observable. The same can be said about higher-dimensional probes such as those involved in the computation of holographic entanglement entropy.
In this work, we construct novel asymptotically locally AdS$_5$ black hole solutions of Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet theory at the Chern-Simons point, supported by a scalar field that generates primary hair. The strength of the scalar field is governed by an independent integration constant; when this constant vanishes, the spacetime reduces to a black hole geometry devoid of hair. The existence of these solutions is intrinsically tied to the horizon metric, which is modeled by three non-trivial Thurston geometries: Nil, Solv, and $SL(2,\mathbb{R})$. The quadratic part of the scalar field action corresponds to a conformally coupled scalar in five dimensions -an invariance of the matter sector that is explicitly broken by the introduction of a quartic self-interaction. These black holes are characterized by two distinct parameters: the horizon radius and the temperature. Notably, there exists a straight line in this parameter space along which the horizon geometry exhibits enhanced isometries, corresponding to solutions previously reported in JHEP 02, 014 (2014). Away from this line, for a fixed horizon radius and temperatures above or below a critical value, the metric's isometries undergo spontaneous breaking. Employing the Regge-Teitelboim approach, we compute the mass and entropy of these solutions, both of which vanish. Despite this, only one of the integration constants can be interpreted as hair, as the other modifies the local geometry at the conformal boundary. Finally, for Solv horizon geometries, we extend these hairy solutions to six dimensions.
In this paper, we analyze the scalar field (quasi-)normal modes of recently derived rotating black holes within the framework of Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet theory at the Chern-Simons point in five dimensions. We also examine the mode spectrum of these probes on new static gravitational solitons. These solitons, featuring a regular center, are constructed from static black holes with gravitational hair via a double analytic continuation. By imposing ingoing boundary conditions at the horizons of rotating black holes, ensuring regularity at the soliton centers, and imposing Dirichlet boundary conditions at infinity, we obtain numerical spectra for the rotating black holes and solitons. For static black holes, we demonstrate analytically that the imaginary part of the mode frequencies is negative. Our analysis of the massless Klein-Gordon equation on five-dimensional geometries reveals an infinite family of gaped, massive three-dimensional Klein-Gordon fields, despite the presence of a non-compact extended direction. For the static solitons, the frequencies are real and non-equispaced, whereas in the rotating black holes, counter-rotating modes are absorbed more quickly, and the imaginary part of the co-rotating modes approaches zero as extremality is approached. Additionally, we show that both the rotating black holes and solitons can be equipped with non-trivial torsion, leading to a novel branch of solutions.
We consider the Carrollian limit of ModMax electrodynamics, namely the limit of vanishing speed of light, for the most general, four-dimensional, duality and conformal invariant electromagnetism. The theory is parameterized by a unique real constant $\gamma$, which remains playing a non-trivial role in the magnetic Carrollian case, while it can be removed in the electric Carrollian contraction, and we therefore focus in the former. Applying the technique of Lie point symmetries, we obtain that the magnetic limit is invariant under the Carrollian group, as well as under the local translation in Carrollian time $x^{0}\rightarrow x^{0\prime}=x^{0}+f\left(x^{i}\right) $ and $x^{i}\rightarrow x^{i\prime}=x^{i}$, with $f$ being an arbitrary function. A diagonal part of the symmetries span the Conformal Carroll algebra of level $2$, $\mathfrak{ccarr}_2$ in four dimensions. Two additional internal symmetries remain in the Carrollian limit of ModMax standing for the conformal invariance of the theory, as well as the invariance under duality transformations.
Within the framework of geometric inflation, where the Friedmann equation is modified to incorporate an infinite series of higher curvature corrections, we describe the emergence of a de Sitter inflationary phase near the poles of an arbitrary dynamical function. Our analysis is quite general and does not depend on any specific choice of cosmological dynamics.
We show that the planar, charged black hole in AdS, dual to the strongly coupled Quark-Gluon Plasma thermal state of large $N$, $SU(N)$, $\mathcal{N}=4$ super Yang-Mills at finite chemical potential undergoes a third-order phase transition in the grand canonical ensemble to a hairy black hole of type IIB supergravity. The hairy phase is another strongly coupled fluid with a conformal equation of state and can be interpreted as another kind of Quark-Gluon plasma. This new Quark-Gluon plasma has less entropy and, therefore, seems to characterize some form of smooth hadronization. The locus of the transition in terms of the "Baryon" chemical potential, $\mu$, and the temperature, $T$, is $\mu=2\pi T$.
We study solutions of Einstein equations with negative cosmological constant in five dimensions that describe black holes whose event horizons are homogeneous, anisotropic spaces. We focus on the case where the constant-time slices of the horizon are the Nil geometry, the Thurston geometry associated to the Heisenberg group. For such spaces, we analyze the symmetries both in the asymptotic region and in the near horizon region. We compute the associated conserved charges, which turn out to be finite and admit a sensible physical interpretation. We analyze the thermodynamics of the Nil black hole, and we present a stationary spinning generalization of it in the slowly rotating approximation.