arXiv subjects

Olivera Miskovic

Publications and source records attributed to Olivera Miskovic.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Soft charges and zero modes at null boundaries

Asymptotic symmetries at null boundaries provide a powerful window into the soft sector of field theories, revealing conserved charges and infinite-dimensional symmetry algebras beyond the standard bulk dynamics. While these structures are usually associated with residual gauge transformations, null boundaries also exhibit a characteristic global zero-mode ambiguity, whose physical consequences are less explored. We discuss how this zero mode modifies the canonical structure of field theories at null boundaries. In particular, we show that it gives rise to a new quasilocal edge observable, with consequences to the charge algebra. It can arise on any kind of null boundaries, both at the null infinity and the finite distance such as a black hole horizon.

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arXiv2026

Thermodynamics of Chern-Simons AdS$_5$ black holes coupled to $\mathrm{SU}(2)$ solitons

We investigate properties of the five-dimensional Chern--Simons AdS black hole coupled to $\mathrm{SU}(2)$ solitons by means of a minisuperspace approximation adapted to static, spherically symmetric configurations. The reduced action reproduces the known branch of solutions and provides a variational framework in which the boundary terms determine the conserved quantities and their conjugate variables. In particular, we recover the energy and the $\mathrm{U}(1)$ charge previously obtained by Hamiltonian methods, while the enlarged parameter space also reveals a momentum conjugate to the trace-torsion mode. The Euclidean action yields an entropy satisfying the first law of black hole thermodynamics. In contrast to many other torsional black hole models, the axial torsion parameter, describing the secondary black hole hair, together with the trace-torsion mode, contributes nontrivially to the entropy. The expression for the entropy obtained in this way is further confirmed by the other two methods found in the literature.

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arXiv2026

Holographic Weyl Anomaly and Kounterterms in AdS gravity

The addition of Kounterterms to Einstein gravity leads to a finite action for asymptotically anti-de Sitter (AdS) spaces with a conformally flat boundary. In that sense, it provides a partial renormalization for AdS gravity when compared to standard holographic techniques, where the mismatch is given in terms of nontrivial conformal properties of the boundary. On the other hand, this method has the clear advantage that the variation of the action has a closed form in an arbitrary dimension. In this work, it is shown how to extract holographic information on conformal anomalies from the variation in $(2n+1)$-dimensional Einstein-AdS plus Kounterterms. Remarkably enough, a considerable part of the Weyl anomaly can be worked out for any odd dimension.

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arXiv2024

Holography of dislocations and ring defects in Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet AdS gravity

We study torsional topological defects in Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity in ($4+1$)-dimensional anti-de Sitter spacetime. In the holographic interpretation, these correspond to crystalline dislocation defects associated with the discrete lattice translational symmetry. The Gauss-Bonnet coupling is fixed at the Chern-Simons point. By solving the equations of motion through an asymptotic expansion near the boundary, we show that the dual ($3+1$)-dimensional theory admits axially symmetric solutions. These solutions describe holographic materials with dislocation defects at finite temperature, encoded by a black hole in the bulk. At the same time, they feature ring-shaped defects arising from the background Riemann-Cartan geometry, characterized by nontrivial Burgers vectors. We also discuss the possible appearance of an odd-parity Abelian holographic anomaly, proportional to the Nieh-Yan invariant. Our results motivate further studies of holographic defects using bulk gravitational theories and support the view that torsion provides a holographic counterpart of crystalline dislocation defects.

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arXiv2024

Asymptotic structure of scalar-Maxwell theory at the null boundary

We apply the Hamiltonian formalism to investigate the massless sector of scalar field theory coupled with Maxwell electrodynamics through the Pontryagin term. Specifically, we analyze asymptotic symmetries at the null infinity of this theory, conserved charges, and their algebra. We find that the theory possesses asymptotic shift symmetries of the fields not present in the bulk manifold coming from the zero modes of the symplectic matrix of constraints. Consequently, we conclude that the real scalar field also contains asymptotic symmetries previously found in the literature by a different approach. We show that these symmetries are the origin of the electric-magnetic duality in electromagnetism with the topological Pontryagin term, and obtain non-trivial central extension between the electric and magnetic conserved charges. Finally, we examine the full interacting theory and find that, due to the interaction, the symmetry generators are more difficult to identify among the constraints, such that we obtain them in the weak-coupling limit. We find that the asymptotic structure of the theory simplifies due to a fast fall-off of the scalar field, leading to decoupled scalar and Maxwell asymptotic sectors, and losing the electric-magnetic duality.

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arXiv2023

Chern-Simons action and the Carrollian Cotton tensors

In three-dimensional pseudo-Riemannian manifolds, the Cotton tensor arises as the variation of the gravitational Chern-Simons action with respect to the metric. It is Weyl-covariant, symmetric, traceless and covariantly conserved. Performing a reduction of the Cotton tensor with respect to Carrollian diffeomorphisms in a suitable frame, one discloses four sets of Cotton Carrollian relatives, which are conformal and obey Carrollian conservation equations. Each set of Carrollian Cotton tensors is alternatively obtained as the variation of a distinct Carroll-Chern-Simons action with respect to the degenerate metric and the clock form of a strong Carroll structure. The four Carroll-Chern-Simons actions emerge in the Carrollian reduction of the original Chern-Simons ascendant. They inherit its anomalous behaviour under diffeomorphisms and Weyl transformations. The extremums of these Carrollian actions are commented and illustrated.

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arXiv2023

Asymptotic Black Holes and Conformal Mass in AdS Quadratic Curvature Gravity

We explore the consistent truncation of conserved charges in Quadratic Curvature Gravity (QCG) with anti-de Sitter asymptotics to the linear order in the Weyl tensor. The QCG action is given by the most general curvature-squared corrections to Einstein gravity, and it is suitably rendered finite by the addition of extrinsic counterterms (Kounterterms). The conserved charges derived from this action are, as a consequence, nonlinear in the spacetime Riemann tensor. A detailed analysis of the falloff of generic static solutions leads to a charge proportional to the electric part of the Weyl tensor, without loss of information on the energy of the system. The procedure followed provides firmer ground to the extension of the notion of Conformal Mass to higher-curvature gravity, as it appears as associated to a renormalized action. We observe that criticality condition in QCG poses an obstruction to the charge linearization, in contrast to previous results in Lovelock gravity, where degeneracy condition plays a key role.

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arXiv2023

Kac-Moody symmetry in the light front of gauge theories

We discuss the emergence of a new symmetry generator in a Hamiltonian realisation of four-dimensional gauge theories in the flat space foliated by retarded (advanced) time. It generates an asymptotic symmetry that acts on the asymptotic fields in a way different from the usual large gauge transformations. The improved canonical generators, corresponding to gauge and asymptotic symmetries, form a classical Kac-Moody charge algebra with a non-trivial central extension. In particular, we describe the case of electromagnetism, where the charge algebra is the $\mathrm{U}(1)$ current algebra with a level proportional to the coupling constant of the theory, $κ=4π^2/e^2$. We construct bilinear generators yielding Virasoro algebras on the null boundary. We also provide a non-Abelian generalization of the previous symmetries by analysing the evolution of Yang-Mills theory in Bondi coordinates.

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arXiv2022

Spontaneous scalarization in (A)dS gravity at zero temperature

We study spontaneous scalarization of electrically charged extremal black holes in $D\geq 4$ spacetime dimensions. Such a phenomenon is caused by the symmetry breaking due to quartic interactions of the scalar -- Higgs potential and Stueckelberg interaction with electromagnetic and gravitational fields, characterized by the couplings $a$ and $b$, respectively. We use the entropy representation of the states in the vicinity of the horizon, apply the inverse attractor mechanism for the scalar field, and analyze analytically the thermodynamic stability of the system using the laws of thermodynamics. As a result, we obtain that the scalar field condensates on the horizon only in spacetimes which are asymptotically non-flat, $Λ\neq 0$ (dS or AdS), and whose extremal black holes have non-planar horizons $k=\pm 1$, provided that the mass $m$ of the scalar field belongs to a mass interval (area code) different for each set of the boundary conditions specified by $(Λ,k)$. A process of scalarization describes a second order phase transition of the black hole, from the extremal Reissner-Nordström (A)dS one, to the corresponding extremal hairy one. Furthermore, for the transition to happen, the interaction has to be strong enough, and all physical quantities on the horizon depend at most on the effective Higgs-Stueckelberg interaction $am^2-2b$. Most of our results are general, valid for any parameter and any spacetime dimension.

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arXiv2022

Energy of anti-de Sitter black holes in odd-dimensional Quadratic Curvature Gravity

We provide new formulas for the energy of black hole solutions in the anti-de Sitter (AdS) sector of a generic gravity theory with curvature-squared terms. This is achieved by the addition of counterterms of the extrinsic type (\emph{Kounterterms}) which produces a finite variation of the total action. The procedure is compatible with the boundary conditions in asymptotically AdS spaces within the framework of Quadratic Curvature Gravity (QCG) theory. As a consequence, without resorting to background-substraction, or linearized methods, the conserved charges correctly reproduce the energy of static black holes in QCG.

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arXiv2021

Black holes with topological charges in Chern-Simons AdS$_5$ supergravity

We study static black hole solutions with locally spherical horizons coupled to non-Abelian field in $\mathcal{N}=4$ Chern-Simons AdS$_5$ supergravity. They are governed by three parameters associated to the mass, axial torsion and amplitude of the internal soliton, and two ones to the gravitational hair. They describe geometries that can be a global AdS space, naked singularity or a (non-)extremal black hole. We analyze physical properties of two inequivalent asymptotically AdS solutions when the spatial section at radial infinity is either a 3-sphere or a projective 3-space. An important feature of these 3-parametric solutions is that they possess a topological structure including two $SU(2)$ solitons that wind nontrivially around the black hole horizon, as characterized by the Pontryagin index. In the extremal black hole limit, the solitons' strengths match and a soliton-antisoliton system unwinds. That limit admits both non-BPS and BPS configurations. For the latter, the pure gauge and non-pure gauge solutions preserve $1/2$ and $1/16$ of the original supersymmetries, respectively. In a general case, we compute conserved charges in Hamiltonian formalism, finding many similarities with standard supergravity black holes.

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arXiv2020

Counterterms, Kounterterms, and the variational problem in AdS gravity

We show that the Kounterterms for pure AdS gravity in arbitrary even dimensions coincide with the boundary counterterms obtained through holographic renormalization if and only if the boundary Weyl tensor vanishes. In particular, the Kounterterms lead to a well posed variational problem for generic asymptotically locally AdS manifolds only in four dimensions. We determine the exact form of the counterterms for conformally flat boundaries and demonstrate that, in even dimensions, the Kounterterms take exactly the same form. This agreement can be understood as a consequence of Anderson's theorem for the renormalized volume of conformally compact Einstein 4-manifolds and its higher dimensional generalizations by Albin and Chang, Qing and Yang. For odd dimensional asymptotically locally AdS manifolds with a conformally flat boundary, the Kounterterms coincide with the boundary counterterms except for the logarithmic divergence associated with the holographic conformal anomaly, and finite local terms.

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arXiv2020

Topological invariants and the definition of energy in quadratic gravity theory

We provide a simple method to compute the energy in higher curvature gravity in asymptotically AdS spacetimes in even dimensions. It follows from the combined use of topological terms added to the gravity action, and the Wald charges derived from the augmented action functional. No additional boundary terms are needed. As a consistency check, we show that the formula for the conserved quantities derived in this way yields the correct result for the mass of asymptotically AdS black holes.

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arXiv2019

Mass in Lovelock Unique Vacuum gravity theories

We derive an expression for conserved charges in Lovelock AdS gravity for solutions having $k$-fold degenerate vacua, making manifest a link between the degeneracy of a given vacuum and the nonlinearity of the energy formula. We show for a black hole solution to the field equations on a branch of multiplicity $k$ that its mass comes from an expression that contains the product of $k$ Weyl tensors. We prove that all divergent contributions of the type (Weyl)$^q$, with $1\le q 1$. Our results provide insight on the holographic properties of degenerate Lovelock theories.

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arXiv2019

Non-Abelian gauge theories invariant under diffeomorphisms

We discuss diffeomorphism and gauge invariant theories in three dimensions motivated by the fact that some models of interest do not have a suitable action description yet. The construction is based on a canonical representation of symmetry generators and on building of the corresponding canonical action. We obtain a class of theories whose number of local degrees of freedom depends on the dimension of the gauge group and the number of the independent constraints. By choosing the latter, we focus on three special cases, starting with a theory with maximal local number of degrees of freedom and finishing with a theory with zero degrees of freedom (Chern-Simons).

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arXiv2018

Asymptotic symmetries of three-dimensional Chern-Simons gravity for the Maxwell algebra

We study a three-dimensional Chern-Simons gravity theory based on the Maxwell algebra. We find that the boundary dynamics is described by an enlargement and deformation of the $\mathfrak{bms}_3$ algebra with three independent central charges. This symmetry arises from a gravity action invariant under the local Maxwell group and is characterized by presence of Abelian generators which modify the commutation relations of the super-translations in the standard $\mathfrak{bms}_3$ algebra. Our analysis is based on the charge algebra of the theory in the BMS gauge, which includes the known solutions of standard asymptotically flat case. The field content of the theory is different than the one of General Relativity, but it includes all its geometries as particular solutions. In this line, we also study the stationary solutions of the theory in ADM form and we show that the vacuum energy and the vacuum angular momentum of the stationary configuration are influenced by the presence of the gravitational Maxwell field.

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arXiv2018

Energy in Higher-Derivative Gravity via Topological Regularization

We give a novel definition of gravitational energy for an arbitrary theory of gravity including quadratic-curvature corrections to Einstein equations. We focus on the theory in four dimensions, in presence of negative cosmological constant, and with asymptotically anti-de Sitter (AdS) boundary conditions. As a first example, we compute the gravitational energy and angular momentum of Schwarzschild-AdS black holes, for which we obtain results consistent with previous computations performed using different methods. However, our method differs qualitatively from other ones in the feature of being intrinsically non-linear. It relies on the idea of adding to the gravity action topological invariant terms which suffice to regularize the Noether charges and render the variational problem well-posed. This is an idea that has been previously considered in the case of second-order theories, such as general relativity and which, as shown here, extends to higher-derivative theories. Besides black holes, we consider other solutions, such as gravitational waves in AdS, for which we also find results in agreement. This enables us to investigate the consistency of this approach in the non-Einstein sector of the theory.

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arXiv2018

Extremal Black Holes, Stueckelberg Scalars and Phase Transitions

We calculate the entropy of a static extremal black hole in 4D gravity, non-linearly coupled to a massive Stueckelberg scalar. We find that the scalar field does not allow the black hole to be magnetically charged. We also show that the system can exhibit a phase transition due to electric charge variations. For spherical and hyperbolic horizons, the critical point exists only in presence of a cosmological constant, and if the scalar is massive and non-linearly coupled to electromagnetic field. On one side of the critical point, two extremal solutions coexist: Reissner-Nordström (A)dS black hole and the charged hairy (A)dS black hole, while on the other side of the critical point the black hole does not have hair. A near-critical analysis reveals that the hairy black hole has larger entropy, thus giving rise to a zero temperature phase transition. This is characterized by a discontinuous second derivative of the entropy with respect to the electric charge at the critical point. The results obtained here are analytical and based on the entropy function formalism and the second law of thermodynamics.

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