arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to N. Itzhaki.
Using a proposal of Maldacena we compute in the framework of the supergravity description of N coincident D3 branes the energy of a quark anti-quark pair in the large N limit of U(N) N=4 SYM in four dimensions at finite temperature.
We generalize the Gibbons-Wiltshire solution of four dimensional Kaluza-Klein black holes in order to describe Type IIA solutions of bound states of D6 and D0-branes. We probe the solutions with a D6-brane and a D0-brane. We also probe a system of D2+D0-branes and of a D2-brane bound to a F1-string with a D2-brane. A precise agreement between the SYM and the SUGRA calculations is found for the static force as well as for the $v^2$ force in all cases.
We construct M-theory curves associated with brane configurations of SU(N), SO(N) and $Sp(2N)$ 5d supersymmetric gauge theories compactified on a circle. From the curves we can account for all the existing different SU(N) field theories with $N_f \leq 2 N$. This is the correct bound for $N \geq 3$. We remark on the exceptional case SU(2). The bounds obtained for SO(N) and $Sp(2N)$ are $N_f\leq N-4$ and $N_f\leq 2N+4$, respectively.
We consider string theory corrections to 4D black holes which solve the 5D vacuum Einstein equations. We find that the corrections vanish only for the extremal electric solution. We also show that for the non-extremal electric black hole the mass corrections are related to the charge corrections. The implications to string states counting and the correspondence principle for black holes and strings are discussed.
We use the M theory approach of Witten to investigate N=1 SU($N_c$) SQCD with $N_f$ flavors. We reproduce the field theoretical results and identify in M theory the gluino condensate and the eigenvalues of the meson matrix. This approach allows us to identify the constant piece of the effective field theory coupling from which the coefficient of the one-loop $β$-function can be identified. By studying the area of the M-theory five-brane we investigate the stability of type IIA brane configurations. We prove that in a supersymmetric setup there is no force between static D4-branes that end on NS five-branes. The force in the case that there is a relative velocity between the branes is computed. We show that at the regions of intersecting IIA branes the curvature of the M theory five-brane is singular in the type IIA limit.
It is generally admitted that gravitational interactions become large at an invariant distance of order $1$ from the black hole horizon. We show that due to the ``atmosphere'' of high angular particles near the horizon strong gravitational interactions already occur at an invariant distance of the order of $\sqrt[3]{M}$. The implications of these results for the origin of black hole radiation, the meaning of black hole entropy and the information puzzle are discussed.
We show that the S-matrix ansatz implies a semi-classical metric such that a freely falling test particle will not cross the horizon in its proper time. Instead of reaching the singularity it will reach ${\cal I^{+}}$.
We discuss the limitations on space time measurement in the Schwarzchild metric. We find that near the horizon the limitations on space time measurement are of the order of the black hole radius. We suggest that it indicates that a large mass black hole cannot be described by means of local field theory even at macroscopic distances and that any attempt to describe black hole formation and evaporation by means of an effective local field theory will necessarily lead to information loss. We also present a new interpretation of the black hole entropy which leads to $S=cA$ , where $c$ is a constant of order $1$ which does not depend on the number of fields.
We discuss the limitations of 't Hooft's proposal for the black hole S-matrix. We find that the validity of the S-matrix implies violation of the semi-classical approximation at scales large compared to the Planck scale. We also show that the effect of the centrifugal barrier on the S-matrix is crucial even for large transverse distances.
We use the weak field approximation to show that information is lost in principle in quantum gravity.
We discuss a Gedanken experiment in which we construct a physical coordinate system which covers the universe. Using general properties of quantum gravity we find that the minimum uncertainty of the coordinate system is $\sqrt[5]{R}$ where $R$ is the radius of the universe
We give an indication that gravity coupled to an infinite number of fields might be a renormalizable theory. A toy model with an infinite number of interacting fermions in four-dimentional space-time is analyzed. The model is finite at any order in perturbation theory. However, perturbation theory is valid only for external momenta smaller than $λ^{-\frac{1}{2}}$ , where $λ$ is the coupling constant.
We discuss time measurement in quantum gravity. Using general relativity for large distances and the uncertainty principle we find a minimum time interval of the order of the Planck time, therefore the uncertainty in time measurment is bounded from below.