arXiv subjects

Sameer Murthy

Publications and source records attributed to Sameer Murthy.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2023

Supersymmetric phases of AdS$_4$/CFT$_3$

We exhibit an infinite family of supersymmetric phases in the three-dimensional ABJM superconformal field theory and the dual asymptotically AdS$_4$ gravity. They are interpreted as partially deconfined phases which generalize the confined/pure AdS phase and deconfined/supersymmetric black hole phase. Our analysis involves finding a family of saddle-points of the superconformal index labelled by rational points (equivalently, roots of unity), separately in the bulk and boundary theories. In the ABJM theory we calculate the free energy of each saddle by the large-$N$ asymptotic expansion of the superconformal index to all orders in perturbation theory near the saddle-point. We find that this expansion terminates at finite order. In the gravitational theory we show that there is a corresponding family of solutions, constructed by orbifolding the eleven-dimensional uplift of the supersymmetric black hole. The on-shell gravitational action of each orbifold agrees with the free energy of the corresponding saddle in the SCFT. We find that there are two saddles in the ABJM theory with the same entropy as the supersymmetric black hole, corresponding to the two primitive fourth-roots of unity, which causes macroscopic oscillations in the microcanonical index.

hep-th↗

arXiv2023

Localization on $AdS_3 \times S^2$ I: the 4d/5d connection in off-shell Euclidean supergravity

We begin to develop the formalism of localization for the functional integral of supergravity on $AdS_3 \times S^2$. We show how the condition of supersymmetry in the Euclidean $\mathbb{H}^3/\mathbb{Z} \times S^2$ geometry naturally leads to a twist of the S$^2$ around the time direction of $AdS_3$. The twist gives us a five-dimensional Euclidean supergravity background dual to the elliptic genus of $(0,4)$ SCFT$_2$ at the semiclassical level. On this background we set up the off-shell BPS equations for one of the Killing spinors, such that the functional integral of five-dimensional Euclidean supergravity on $\mathbb{H}^3/\mathbb{Z} \times S^2$ localizes to its space of solutions. We obtain a class of solutions to these equations by lifting known off-shell BPS solutions of 4-dimensional supergravity on $AdS_2 \times S^2$. In order to do this consistently, we construct and use a Euclidean version of the off-shell 4d/5d lift of arxiv:1112.5371, which could be of independent interest.

hep-th↗

arXiv2023

Unitary matrix models, free fermion ensembles, and the giant graviton expansion

We consider a class of matrix integrals over the unitary group $U(N)$ with an infinite set of couplings characterized by a series $f(q)=\sum_{n \ge 1} a_n q^n$, with $a_n \in \mathbb{Z}$. Such integrals arise in physics as the partition functions of free four-dimensional gauge theories on $S^3$ and, in particular, as the superconformal index of super Yang-Mills theory. We show that any such model can be expressed in terms of a system of free fermions in an ensemble parameterized by the infinite set of couplings. Integrating out the fermions in a given quantum state leads to a convergent expansion as a series of determinants, as shown by Borodin-Okounkov many years ago. By further averaging over the ensemble, we obtain a formula for the matrix integral as a $q$-series with successive terms suppressed by $q^{αN + β}$ where $α$, $β$ do not depend on $N$. This provides a matrix-model explanation of the giant graviton expansion that has been observed recently in the literature.

hep-th↗

arXiv2022

Twisting and localization in supergravity: equivariant cohomology of BPS black holes

We develop the formalism of supersymmetric localization in supergravity using the deformed BRST algebra defined in the presence of a supersymmetric background as recently formulated in arxiv:1806.03690. The gravitational functional integral localizes onto the cohomology of a global supercharge $Q_\text{eq}$, obeying $Q_\text{eq}^2=H$, where $H$ is a global symmetry of the background. Our construction naturally produces a twisted version of supergravity whenever supersymmetry can be realized off-shell. We present the details of the twisted graviton multiplet and ghost fields for the superconformal formulation of four-dimensional N=2 supergravity. As an application of our formalism, we systematize the computation of the exact quantum entropy of supersymmetric black holes. In particular, we compute the one-loop determinant of the $Q_\text{eq} \mathcal{V}$ deformation operator for the off-shell fluctuations of the Weyl multiplet around the $AdS_2 \times S^2$ saddle. This result, which is consistent with the corresponding large-charge on-shell analysis, is needed to complete the first-principles computation of the quantum entropy.

hep-th↗

arXiv2022

Black hole microstate counting from the gravitational path integral

Reproducing the integer count of black hole micro-states from the gravitational path integral is an important problem in quantum gravity. In this paper, we show that, by using supersymmetric localization, the gravitational path integral for $\frac{1}8$-BPS black holes in $\mathcal{N}=8$ supergravity reproduces the index obtained in the string theory construction of such black holes, including all non-perturbatively suppressed geometries. A more refined argument then shows that, not only the black hole index, but also the total number of black hole microstates within an energy window above extremality that is polynomially suppressed in the charges, also matches this string theory index. To achieve such a match we compute the one-loop determinant arising in the localization calculation for all $\mathcal{N}=2$ supergravity supermultiplets in the $\mathcal{N}=8$ gravity supermultiplet. Furthermore, we carefully account for the contribution of boundary zero-modes, that can be seen as arising from the zero-temperature limit of the $\mathcal{N}=4$ super-Schwarzian, and show that performing the exact path integral over such modes provides a critical contribution needed for the match to be achieved. A discussion about the importance of such zero-modes in the wider context of all extremal black holes is presented in a companion paper.

hep-th↗

arXiv2022

Revisiting the Logarithmic Corrections to the Black Hole Entropy

Logarithmic corrections to the entropy of extremal black holes have been successfully used to accurately match degeneracies from microscopic constructions to calculations of the gravitational path integral. In this paper, we revisit the problem of deriving such corrections for the case of extremal black holes, either non-supersymmetric or supersymmetric, and for near-extremal black holes. The zero-modes that are present at extremality are crucial, since their path integral cannot be treated quadratically and needs to be regulated. We show how the regulated result can be obtained by taking the zero-temperature limit of either the $4d$ Einstein-Maxwell or $4d$ supergravity path integral to find the Schwarzian or super-Schwarzian theories. This leads to drastically different estimates for the degeneracy of non-supersymmetric and supersymmetric extremal black holes. In a companion paper, we discuss how such zero-modes affect the calculation of BPS black holes degeneracies, using supersymmetric localization for an exact computation of the gravitational path integral.

hep-th↗

arXiv2021

The 4d superconformal index near roots of unity and 3d Chern-Simons theory

We consider the $S^3\times S^1$ superconformal index $\mathcal{I}(τ)$ of 4d $\mathcal{N}=1$ gauge theories. The Hamiltonian index is defined in a standard manner as the Witten index with a chemical potential $τ$ coupled to a combination of angular momenta on $S^3$ and the $U(1)$ R-charge. We develop the all-order asymptotic expansion of the index as $q = e^{2 πi τ}$ approaches a root of unity, i.e. as $\widetilde τ\equiv m τ+ n \to 0$, with $m,n$ relatively prime integers. The asymptotic expansion of $\log\mathcal{I}(τ)$ has terms of the form $\widetilde τ^k$, $k = -2, -1, 0, 1$. We determine the coefficients of the $k=-2,-1,1$ terms from the gauge theory data, and provide evidence that the $k=0$ term is determined by the Chern-Simons partition function on $S^3/\mathbb{Z}_m$. We explain these findings from the point of view of the 3d theory obtained by reducing the 4d gauge theory on the $S^1$. The supersymmetric functional integral of the 3d theory takes the form of a matrix integral over the dynamical 3d fields, with an effective action given by supersymmetrized Chern-Simons couplings of background and dynamical gauge fields. The singular terms in the $\widetilde τ\to 0$ expansion (dictating the growth of the 4d index) are governed by the background Chern-Simons couplings. The constant term has a background piece as well as a piece given by the localized functional integral over the dynamical 3d gauge multiplet. The linear term arises from the supersymmetric Casimir energy factor needed to go between the functional integral and the Hamiltonian index.

hep-th↗

arXiv2021

Quantum entropy of BMPV black holes and the topological M-theory conjecture

We present a formula for the quantum entropy of supersymmetric five-dimensional spinning black holes in M-theory compactified on $CY_3$, i.e., BMPV black holes. We use supersymmetric localization in the framework of off-shell five dimensional $N=2$ supergravity coupled to $I = 1,\dots,N_V + 1$ off-shell vector multiplets. The theory is governed at two-derivative level by the symmetric tensor $\mathcal{C}_{IJK}$ (the intersection numbers of the Calabi-Yau) and at four-derivative level by the gauge-gravitational Chern-Simons coupling $c_I$ (the second Chern class of the Calabi-Yau). The quantum entropy is an $N_V + 2$-dimensional integral parameterised by one real parameter $φ^I$ for each vector multiplet and an additional parameter $φ^0$ for the gravity multiplet. The integrand consists of an action governed completely by $\mathcal{C}_{IJK}$ and $c_{I}$, and a one-loop determinant. Consistency with the on-shell logarithmic corrections to the entropy, the symmetries of the very special geometry of the moduli space, and an assumption of analyticity constrains the one-loop determinant up to a scale-independent function $f(φ^0)$. For $f=1$ our result agrees completely with the topological M-theory conjecture of Dijkgraaf, Gukov, Nietzke, and Vafa for static black holes at two derivative level, and provides a natural extension to higher derivative corrections. For rotating BMPV black holes, our result differs from the DGNV conjecture at the level of the first quantum corrections.

hep-th↗

arXiv2021

The asymptotic growth of states of the 4d N=1 superconformal index

We show that the superconformal index of N=1 superconformal field theories in four dimensions has an asymptotic growth of states which is exponential in the charges. Our analysis holds in a Cardy-like limit of large charges, for which the index is dominated by small values of chemical potentials. In this limit we find the saddle points of the integral that defines the superconformal index using two different methods. One method, valid for finite N, is to first take the Cardy-like limit and then find the saddle points. The other method is to analyze the saddle points at large N and then take the Cardy-like limit. The result of both analyses is that the asymptotic growth of states of the superconformal index exactly agrees with the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy of supersymmetric black holes in the dual AdS$_5$ theory.

hep-th↗

arXiv2021

Supersymmetric phases of 4d N=4 SYM at large N

We find a family of complex saddle-points at large N of the matrix model for the superconformal index of SU(N) N=4 super Yang-Mills theory on $S^3 \times S^1$ with one chemical potential $τ$. The saddle-point configurations are labelled by points $(m,n)$ on the lattice $Λ_τ= \mathbb{Z} τ+\mathbb{Z}$ with $\text{gcd}(m,n)=1$. The eigenvalues at a given saddle are uniformly distributed along a string winding $(m,n)$ times along the $(A,B)$ cycles of the torus $\mathbb{C}/Λ_τ$. The action of the matrix model extended to the torus is closely related to the Bloch-Wigner elliptic dilogarithm, and the related Bloch formula allows us to calculate the action at the saddle-points in terms of real-analytic Eisenstein series. The actions of $(0,1)$ and $(1,0)$ agree with that of pure AdS$_5$ and the supersymmetric AdS$_5$ black hole, respectively. The black hole saddle dominates the canonical ensemble when $τ$ is close to the origin, and there are new saddles that dominate when $τ$ approaches rational points. The extension of the action in terms of modular forms leads to a simple treatment of the Cardy-like limit $τ\to 0$.

hep-th↗

arXiv2020

The large-$N$ limit of the 4d $\mathcal{N}=1$ superconformal index

We systematically analyze the large-$N$ limit of the superconformal index of $\mathcal{N}=1$ superconformal theories having a quiver description. The index of these theories is known in terms of unitary matrix integrals, which we calculate using the recently-developed technique of elliptic extension. This technique allows us to easily evaluate the integral as a sum over saddle points of an effective action in the limit where the rank of the gauge group is infinite. For a generic quiver theory under consideration, we find a special family of saddles whose effective action takes a universal form controlled by the anomaly coefficients of the theory. This family includes the known supersymmetric black hole solution in the holographically dual AdS$_5$ theories. We then analyze the index refined by turning on flavor chemical potentials. We show that, for a certain range of chemical potentials, the effective action again takes a universal cubic form that is controlled by the anomaly coefficients of the theory. Finally, we present a large class of solutions to the saddle-point equations which are labelled by group homomorphisms of finite abelian groups of order $N$ into the torus.

hep-th↗

arXiv2020

The growth of the $\frac{1}{16}$-BPS index in 4d $\mathcal{N}=4$ SYM

We study the Hamiltonian index of $\frac{1}{16}$-BPS operators in 4d $\mathcal{N}=4$ U(N) super Yang-Mills (SYM) theory numerically for $N=2\,,\dots,10$. We show that the large-charge asymptotics agree with analytic results in the Cardy-like limit, as consistent with the entropy of supersymmetric black hole in the dual AdS. The numerics also agree with the large-N analytic result, thus providing hints towards an exact formula for the index. We then prove, using ideas from representation theory, that for values of charges (quantized in integer units) less than 2(N+1) the index agrees precisely with the multi-graviton index, and then begins to deviate for larger charges. Thus the U(N) SYM index interpolates between multi-graviton values at small charge and black hole growth at large charges.

hep-th↗

arXiv2019

Dyonic black hole degeneracies in $\mathcal{N} = 4$ string theory from Dabholkar-Harvey degeneracies

The degeneracies of single-centered dyonic $\frac14$-BPS black holes (BH) in Type II string theory on K3$\times T^2$ are known to be coefficients of certain mock Jacobi forms arising from the Igusa cusp form $Φ_{10}$. In this paper we present an exact analytic formula for these BH degeneracies purely in terms of the degeneracies of the perturbative $\frac12$-BPS states of the theory. We use the fact that the degeneracies are completely controlled by the polar coefficients of the mock Jacobi forms, using the Hardy-Ramanujan-Rademacher circle method. Here we present a simple formula for these polar coefficients as a quadratic function of the $\frac12$-BPS degeneracies. We arrive at the formula by using the physical interpretation of polar coefficients as negative discriminant states, and then making use of previous results in the literature to track the decay of such states into pairs of $\frac12$-BPS states in the moduli space. Although there are an infinite number of such decays, we show that only a finite number of them contribute to the formula. The phenomenon of BH bound state metamorphosis (BSM) plays a crucial role in our analysis. We show that the dyonic BSM orbits with $U$-duality invariant $Δ<0$ are in exact correspondence with the solution sets of the Brahmagupta-Pell equation, which implies that they are isomorphic to the group of units in the order $\mathbb{Z}[\sqrt{|Δ|}]$ in the real quadratic field $\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{|Δ|})$. We check our formula against the known numerical data arising from the Igusa cusp form, for the first 1650 polar coefficients, and find perfect agreement.

hep-th↗

arXiv2019

Microscopic origin of the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy of supersymmetric AdS$_{\bf 5}$ black holes

We present a holographic derivation of the entropy of supersymmetric asymptotically AdS$_5$ black holes. We define a BPS limit of black hole thermodynamics by first focussing on a supersymmetric family of complexified solutions and then reaching extremality. We show that in this limit the black hole entropy is the Legendre transform of the on-shell gravitational action with respect to three chemical potentials subject to a constraint. This constraint follows from supersymmetry and regularity in the Euclidean bulk geometry. Further, we calculate, using localization, the exact partition function of the dual $\mathcal{N}=1$ SCFT on a twisted $S^1\times S^3$ with complexified chemical potentials obeying this constraint. This defines a generalization of the supersymmetric Casimir energy, whose Legendre transform at large $N$ exactly reproduces the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy of the black hole.

hep-th↗

arXiv2019

On the localization manifold of 5d supersymmetric spinning black holes

We analyze the localization equations relevant to the quantum entropy of spinning supersymmetric black holes in five-dimensional asymptotically flat space. The precise problem is to classify all solutions to the off-shell supersymmetry equations in N=2 supergravity coupled to $n_\text{v}+1$ vector multiplets around the near-horizon black hole. We rewrite these equations in terms of the bosonic spinor bilinears that exist in the geometry for an arbitrary background. We then focus on the vector multiplet fluctuations around the near-horizon attractor region of the supersymmetric black hole, and classify all smooth solutions to the localization equations in this background for different choices of analytic continuation. For the choice of analytic continuation consistent with the 4d/5d lift, we find that the most general localization solution for the five-dimensional black hole problem is an~$(n_\text{v}+1)$-dimensional manifold, which is precisely the lift of the localization manifold for supersymmetric black holes in four-dimensional asymptotically flat space.

hep-th↗

arXiv2019

Squashed Toric Manifolds and Higher Depth Mock Modular Forms

Squashed toric sigma models are a class of sigma models whose target space is a toric manifold in which the torus fibration is squashed away from the fixed points so as to produce a neck-like region. The elliptic genera of squashed toric-Calabi-Yau manifolds are known to obey the modular transformation property of holomorphic Jacobi forms, but have an explicit non-holomorphic dependence on the modular parameter. The elliptic genus of the simplest one-dimensional example is known to be a mixed mock Jacobi form, but the precise automorphic nature for the general case remained to be understood. We show that these elliptic genera fall precisely into a class of functions called higher-depth mock modular forms that have been formulated recently in terms of indefinite theta series. We also compute a generalization of the elliptic genera of these models corresponding to an additional set of charges corresponding to the toric symmetries. Finally we speculate on some relations of the elliptic genera of squashed toric models with the Vafa-Witten partition functions of $\mathcal{N}=4$ SYM theory on $\mathbb{CP}^2$.

hep-th↗

arXiv2018

Mock modularity from black hole scattering states

The exact degeneracies of quarter-BPS dyons in Type II string theory on $K3 \times T^2$ are given by Fourier coefficients of the inverse of the Igusa cusp form. For a fixed magnetic charge invariant $m$, the generating function of these degeneracies naturally decomposes as a sum of two parts, which are supposed to account for single-centered black holes, and two-centered black hole bound states, respectively. The decomposition is such that each part is separately modular covariant but neither is holomorphic, calling for a physical interpretation of the non-holomorphy. We resolve this puzzle by computing the supersymmetric index of the quantum mechanics of two-centered half-BPS black-holes, which we model by geodesic motion on Taub-NUT space subject to a certain potential. We compute a suitable index using localization methods, and find that it includes both a temperature-independent contribution from BPS bound states, as well as a temperature-dependent contribution due to a spectral asymmetry in the continuum of scattering states. The continuum contribution agrees precisely with the non-holomorphic completion term required for the modularity of the generating function of two-centered black hole bound states.

hep-th↗

arXiv2018

BRST quantization and equivariant cohomology: localization with asymptotic boundaries

We develop BRST quantization of gauge theories with a soft gauge algebra on spaces with asymptotic boundaries. The asymptotic boundary conditions are imposed on background fields, while quantum fluctuations about these fields are described in terms of quantum fields that vanish at the boundary. This leads us to construct a suitable background field formalism that is generally applicable to soft gauge algebras, and therefore to supergravity. We define a nilpotent BRST charge that acts on both the background and the quantum fields, as well as on the background and quantum ghosts. When the background is restricted to be invariant under a residual isometry group, the background ghosts must be restricted accordingly and play the role of the parameters of the background isometries. Requiring in addition that the background ghosts will be BRST invariant as well then converts the BRST algebra into an equivariant one. The background fields and ghosts are then invariant under the equivariant transformations while the quantum fields and ghosts transform under both the equivariant and the background transformations. We demonstrate how this formalism is suitable for carrying out localization calculations in a large class of theories, including supergravity defined on asymptotic backgrounds that admit supersymmetry.

hep-th↗