arXiv subjects

Oscar J. C. Dias

Publications and source records attributed to Oscar J. C. Dias.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2012

Horizons cannot save the Landscape

Solutions with anti-D3 branes in a Klebanov-Strassler geometry with positive charge dissolved in fluxes have a certain singularity corresponding to a diverging energy density of the RR and NS-NS three-form fluxes. There are many hopes and arguments for and against this singularity, and we attempt to settle the issue by examining whether this singularity can be cloaked by a regular event horizon. This is equivalent to the existence of asymptotically Klebanov-Tseytlin or Klebanov-Strassler black holes whose charge measured at the horizon has the opposite sign to the asymptotic charge. We find that no such KT solution exists. Furthermore, for a large class of KS black holes we considered, the charge at the horizon must also have the same sign as the asymptotic charge, and is completely determined by the temperature, the number of fractional branes and the gaugino masses of the dual gauge theory. Our result suggests that antibrane singularities in backgrounds with charge in the fluxes are unphysical, which in turn raises the question as to whether antibranes can be used to uplift AdS vacua to deSitter ones. Our results also point out to a possible instability mechanism for the antibranes.

hep-th↗

arXiv2012

Kerr-AdS and its Near-horizon Geometry: Perturbations and the Kerr/CFT Correspondence

We investigate linear perturbations of spin-s fields in the Kerr-AdS black hole and in its near-horizon geometry (NHEK-AdS), using the Teukolsky master equation and the Hertz potential. In the NHEK-AdS geometry we solve the associated angular equation numerically and the radial equation exactly. Having these explicit solutions at hand, we search for linear mode instabilities. We do not find any (non-)axisymmetric instabilities with outgoing boundary conditions. This is in agreement with a recent conjecture relating the linearized stability properties of the full geometry with those of its near-horizon geometry. Moreover, we find that the asymptotic behaviour of the metric perturbations in NHEK-AdS violates the fall-off conditions imposed in the formulation of the Kerr/CFT correspondence (the only exception being the axisymmetric sector of perturbations).

hep-th↗

arXiv2012

On the Nonlinear Stability of Asymptotically Anti-de Sitter Solutions

Despite the recent evidence that anti-de Sitter spacetime is nonlinearly unstable, we argue that many asymptotically anti-de Sitter solutions are nonlinearly stable. This includes geons, boson stars, and black holes. As part of our argument, we calculate the frequencies of long-lived gravitational quasinormal modes of AdS black holes in various dimensions. We also discuss a new class of asymptotically anti-de Sitter solutions describing noncoalescing black hole binaries.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2012

Hairy black holes and solitons in global AdS 5

We use a mix of analytic and numerical methods to exhaustively study a class of asymptotically global AdS solitons and hairy black hole solutions in negative cosmological constant Einstein Maxwell gravity coupled to a charged massless scalar field. Our results depend sensitively on the charge 'e' of the scalar field. The solitonic branch of solutions we study hit the Chandrashekhar limit at finite mass at small 'e', but extends to arbitrarily large mass at larger 'e'. At low values of 'e' no hairy black holes exist. At intermediate values of 'e' hairy black holes exist above a critical charge. At large 'e' hairy black holes exist at all values of the charge. The lowest mass hairy black holes is a smooth zero entropy soliton at small charge, but a (probably) singular nonzero entropy hairy black hole at larger charge. In a phase diagram of solutions, the hairy black holes merge with the familiar Reissner-Nordstrom-AdS black holes along a curve that is determined by the onset of the superradiant instability in the latter family.

hep-th↗

arXiv2012

NR/HEP: roadmap for the future

Physics in curved spacetime describes a multitude of phenomena, ranging from astrophysics to high energy physics. The last few years have witnessed further progress on several fronts, including the accurate numerical evolution of the gravitational field equations, which now allows highly nonlinear phenomena to be tamed. Numerical relativity simulations, originally developed to understand strong field astrophysical processes, could prove extremely useful to understand high-energy physics processes like trans-Planckian scattering and gauge-gravity dualities. We present a concise and comprehensive overview of the state-of-the-art and important open problems in the field(s), along with guidelines for the next years. This writeup is a summary of the "NR/HEP Workshop" held in Madeira, Portugal from August 31st to September 3rd 2011.

hep-th↗

arXiv2011

Gravitational Turbulent Instability of Anti-de Sitter Space

Bizon and Rostworowski have recently suggested that anti-de Sitter spacetime might be nonlinearly unstable to transfering energy to smaller and smaller scales and eventually forming a small black hole. We consider pure gravity with a negative cosmological constant and find strong support for this idea. While one can start with a single linearized mode and add higher order corrections to construct a nonlinear geon, this is not possible starting with a linear combination of two or more modes. One is forced to add higher frequency modes with growing amplitude. The implications of this turbulent instability for the dual field theory are discussed.

hep-th↗

arXiv2011

Black holes with only one Killing field

We present the first examples of black holes with only one Killing field. The solutions describe five dimensional AdS black holes with scalar hair. The black holes are neither stationary nor axisymmetric, but are invariant under a single Killing field which is tangent to the null generators of the horizon. Some of these solutions can be viewed as putting black holes into rotating boson stars. Others are related to the endpoint of a superradiant instability. For given mass and angular momentum (within a certain range) several black hole solutions exist.

hep-th↗

arXiv2011

Ultraspinning instability: the missing link

We study linearized perturbations of Myers-Perry black holes in d=7, with two of the three angular momenta set to be equal, and show that instabilities always appear before extremality. Analogous results are expected for all higher odd d. We determine numerically the stationary perturbations that mark the onset of instability for the modes that preserve the isometries of the background. The onset is continuously connected between the previously studied sectors of solutions with a single angular momentum and solutions with all angular momenta equal. This shows that the near-extremality instabilities are of the same nature as the ultraspinning instability of d>5 singly-spinning solutions, for which the angular momentum is unbounded. Our results raise the question of whether there are any extremal Myers-Perry black holes which are stable in d>5.

hep-th↗

arXiv2011

Black funnels and droplets in thermal equilibrium

It has recently been proposed that the strong coupling behaviour of quantum field theories on a non-dynamical black hole background can be described, in the context of the AdS/CFT correspondence, by a competition between two gravity duals: a black funnel and a black droplet. We present here thermal equilibrium solutions which represent such spacetimes, providing the first example where the thermal competition between the gravity duals can be studied. The solutions correspond to a special family of charged AdS C-metrics. We compute the corresponding Euclidean actions and find that the black funnel always dominates the canonical ensemble in our example, meaning that the field theory does not undergo a phase transition.

hep-th↗

arXiv2011

Ultraspinning instability of anti-de Sitter black holes

Myers-Perry black holes with a single spin in d>5 have been shown to be unstable if rotating sufficiently rapidly. We extend the numerical analysis which allowed for that result to the asymptotically AdS case. We determine numerically the stationary perturbations that mark the onset of the instabilities for the modes that preserve the rotational symmetries of the background. The parameter space of solutions is thoroughly analysed, and the onset of the instabilities is obtained as a function of the cosmological constant. Each of these perturbations has been conjectured to represent a bifurcation point to a new phase of stationary AdS black holes, and this is consistent with our results.

hep-th↗

arXiv2010

A scalar field condensation instability of rotating anti-de Sitter black holes

Near-extreme Reissner-Nordstrom-anti-de Sitter black holes are unstable against the condensation of an uncharged scalar field with mass close to the Breitenlohner-Freedman bound. It is shown that a similar instability afflicts near-extreme large rotating AdS black holes, and near-extreme hyperbolic Schwarzschild-AdS black holes. The resulting nonlinear hairy black hole solutions are determined numerically. Some stability results for (possibly charged) scalar fields in black hole backgrounds are proved. For most of the extreme black holes we consider, these demonstrate stability if the ``effective mass" respects the near-horizon BF bound. Small spherical Reissner-Nordstrom-AdS black holes are an interesting exception to this result.

hep-th↗

arXiv2010

Ultraspinning instability of rotating black holes

Rapidly rotating Myers-Perry black holes in d>5 dimensions were conjectured to be unstable by Emparan and Myers. In a previous publication, we found numerically the onset of the axisymmetric ultraspinning instability in the singly-spinning Myers-Perry black hole in d=7,8,9. This threshold signals also a bifurcation to new branches of axisymmetric solutions with pinched horizons that are conjectured to connect to the black ring, black Saturn and other families in the phase diagram of stationary solutions. We firmly establish that this instability is also present in d=6 and in d=10,11. The boundary conditions of the perturbations are discussed in detail for the first time and we prove that they preserve the angular velocity and temperature of the original Myers-Perry black hole. This property is fundamental to establish a thermodynamic necessary condition for the existence of this instability in general rotating backgrounds. We also prove a previous claim that the ultraspinning modes cannot be pure gauge modes. Finally we find new ultraspinning Gregory-Laflamme instabilities of rotating black strings and branes that appear exactly at the critical rotation predicted by the aforementioned thermodynamic criterium. The latter is a refinement of the Gubser-Mitra conjecture.

hep-th↗

arXiv2010

An instability of higher-dimensional rotating black holes

We present the first example of a linearized gravitational instability of an asymptotically flat vacuum black hole. We study perturbations of a Myers-Perry black hole with equal angular momenta in an odd number of dimensions. We find no evidence of any instability in five or seven dimensions, but in nine dimensions, for sufficiently rapid rotation, we find perturbations that grow exponentially in time. The onset of instability is associated with the appearance of time-independent perturbations which generically break all but one of the rotational symmetries. This is interpreted as evidence for the existence of a new 70-parameter family of black hole solutions with only a single rotational symmetry. We also present results for the Gregory-Laflamme instability of rotating black strings, demonstrating that rotation makes black strings more unstable.

hep-th↗

arXiv2010

Phase diagram for non-axisymmetric plasma balls

Plasma balls and rings emerge as fluid holographic duals of black holes and black rings in the hydrodynamic/gravity correspondence for the Scherk-Schwarz AdS system. Recently, plasma balls spinning above a critical rotation were found to be unstable against m-lobed perturbations. In the phase diagram of stationary solutions the threshold of the instability signals a bifurcation to a new phase of non-axisymmetric configurations. We find explicitly this family of solutions and represent them in the phase diagram. We discuss the implications of our results for the gravitational system. Rotating non-axisymmetric black holes necessarily radiate gravitational waves. We thus emphasize that it would be important, albeit possibly out of present reach, to have a better understanding of the hydrodynamic description of gravitational waves and of the gravitational interaction between two bodies. We also argue that it might well be that a non-axisymmetric m-lobed instability is also present in Myers-Perry black holes for rotations below the recently found ultraspinning instability.

hep-th↗

arXiv2009

Pair creation of higher dimensional black holes on a de Sitter background

We study in detail the quantum process in which a pair of black holes is created in a higher D-dimensional de Sitter (dS) background. The energy to materialize and accelerate the pair comes from the positive cosmological constant. The instantons that describe the process are obtained from the Tangherlini black hole solutions. Our pair creation rates reduce to the pair creation rate for Reissner-Nordstrom-dS solutions when D=4. Pair creation of black holes in the dS background becomes less suppressed when the dimension of the spacetime increases. The dS space is the only background in which we can discuss analytically the pair creation process of higher dimensional black holes, since the C-metric and the Ernst solutions, that describe respectively a pair accelerated by a string and by an electromagnetic field, are not know yet in a higher dimensional spacetime.

hep-th↗

arXiv2009

Instability and new phases of higher-dimensional rotating black holes

It has been conjectured that higher-dimensional rotating black holes become unstable at a sufficiently large value of the rotation, and that new black holes with pinched horizons appear at the threshold of the instability. We search numerically, and find, the stationary axisymmetric perturbations of Myers-Perry black holes with a single spin that mark the onset of the instability and the appearance of the new black hole phases. We also find new ultraspinning Gregory-Laflamme instabilities of rotating black strings and branes.

hep-th↗

arXiv2009

Kerr-CFT and gravitational perturbations

Motivated by the Kerr-CFT conjecture, we investigate perturbations of the near-horizon extreme Kerr spacetime. The Teukolsky equation for a massless field of arbitrary spin is solved. Solutions fall into two classes: normal modes and traveling waves. Imposing suitable (outgoing) boundary conditions, we find that there are no unstable modes. The explicit form of metric perturbations is obtained using the Hertz potential formalism, and compared with the Kerr-CFT boundary conditions. The energy and angular momentum associated with scalar field and gravitational normal modes are calculated. The energy is positive in all cases. The behaviour of second order perturbations is discussed.

hep-th↗

arXiv2009

Bifurcation of Plasma Balls and Black Holes to Lobed Configurations

At high energy densities any quantum field theory is expected to have an effective hydrodynamic description. When combined with the gravity/gauge duality an unified picture emerges, where gravity itself can have a formal holographic hydrodynamic description. This provides a powerful tool to study black holes in a hydrodynamic setup. We study the stability of plasma balls, holographic duals of Scherck-Schwarz (SS) AdS black holes. We find that rotating plasma balls are unstable against m-lobed perturbations for rotation rates higher than a critical value. This unstable mode signals a bifurcation to a new branch of non-axisymmetric stationary solutions which resemble a "peanut-like" rotating plasma. The gravitational dual of the rotating plasma ball must then be unstable and possibly decay to a non-axisymmetric long-lived SS AdS black hole. This instability provides therefore a mechanism that bounds the rotation of SS black holes. Our results are strictly valid for the SS AdS gravity theory dual to a SS gauge theory. The latter is particularly important because it shares common features with QCD, namely it is non-conformal, non-supersymmetric and has a confinement/deconfinement phase transition. We focus our analysis in 3-dimensional plasmas dual to SS AdS_5 black holes, but many of our results should extend to higher dimensions and to other gauge theory/gravity dualities with confined/deconfined phases and admitting a fluid description.

hep-th↗