arXiv subjects

Sera Cremonini

Publications and source records attributed to Sera Cremonini.

50 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2010

Strongly Coupled Perturbations in Two-Field Inflationary Models

We study models of inflation with two scalar fields and non-canonical kinetic terms, focusing on the case in which the curvature and isocurvature perturbations are strongly coupled to each other. In the regime where a heavy mode can be identified and integrated out, we clarify the passage from the full two-field model to an effectively single-field description. However, the strong coupling sets a new scale in the system, and affects the evolution of the perturbations as well as the beginning of the regime of validity of the effective field theory. In particular, the predictions of the model are sensitive to the relative hierarchy between the coupling and the mass of the heavy mode. As a result, observables are not given unambiguously in terms of the parameters of an effectively single field model with non-trivial sound speed. Finally, the requirement that the sound horizon crossing occurs within the regime of validity of the effective theory leads to a lower bound on the sound speed. Our analysis is done in an extremely simple toy model of slow-roll inflation, which is chosen for its tractability, but is non-trivial enough to illustrate the richness of the dynamics in non-canonical multi-field models.

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arXiv2010

Viscosity Bound and Causality in Superfluid Plasma

It was argued by Brigante et.al that the lower bound on the ratio of the shear viscosity to the entropy density in strongly coupled plasma is translated into microcausality violation in the dual gravitational description. Since transport properties of the system characterize its infrared dynamics, while the causality of the theory is determined by its ultraviolet behavior, the viscosity bound/microcausality link should not be applicable to theories that undergo low temperature phase transitions. We present an explicit model of AdS/CFT correspondence that confirms this fact.

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arXiv2010

On Non-Canonical Kinetic Terms and the Tilt of the Power Spectrum

We argue that in models of inflation with two scalar fields and non-canonical kinetic terms there is a possibility of obtaining a red tilt of the power spectrum of curvature perturbations from noncanonicality-induced interactions between the curvature and isocurvature perturbations. We describe an extremely simple model realizing this idea, study numerically its predictions for the perturbations and discuss applications in realistic scenarios of inflation. We discuss to what extent in this model the scale of the inflationary potential can be decoupled from the amplitude of the density fluctuations.

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arXiv2010

Extremal Three-point Correlators in Kerr/CFT

We compute three-point correlation functions in the near-extremal, near-horizon region of a Kerr black hole, and compare to the corresponding finite-temperature conformal field theory correlators. For simplicity, we focus on scalar fields dual to operators ${\cal O}_h$ whose conformal dimensions obey $h_3=h_1+h_2$, which we name \emph{extremal} in analogy with the classic $AdS_5 \times S^5$ three-point function in the literature. For such extremal correlators we find perfect agreement with the conformal field theory side, provided that the coupling of the cubic interaction contains a vanishing prefactor $\propto h_3-h_1-h_2$. In fact, the bulk three-point function integral for such extremal correlators diverges as $1/(h_3-h_1-h_2)$. This behavior is analogous to what was found in the context of extremal AdS/CFT three-point correlators. As in AdS/CFT our correlation function can nevertheless be computed via analytic continuation from the non-extremal case.

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arXiv2010

Correlation Functions and Hidden Conformal Symmetry of Kerr Black Holes

Extremal scalar three-point correlators in the near-NHEK geometry of Kerr black holes have recently been shown to agree with the result expected from a holographically dual non-chiral two-dimensional conformal field theory. In this paper we extend this calculation to extremal three-point functions of scalars in a general Kerr black hole which need not obey the extremality condition $M=\sqrt{J}$. It was recently argued that for low frequency scalars in the Kerr geometry there is a dual conformal field theory description which determines the interactions in this regime. Our results support this conjecture. Furthermore, we formulate a recipe for calculating finite-temperature retarded three-point correlation functions which is applicable to a large class of (even non-extremal) correlators, and discuss the vanishing of the extremal couplings.

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arXiv2009

Higher Derivative Corrections to R-charged Black Holes: Boundary Counterterms and the Mass-Charge Relation

We carry out the holographic renormalization of Einstein-Maxwell theory with curvature-squared corrections. In particular, we demonstrate how to construct the generalized Gibbons-Hawking surface term needed to ensure a perturbatively well-defined variational principle. This treatment ensures the absence of ghost degrees of freedom at the linearized perturbative order in the higher-derivative corrections. We use the holographically renormalized action to study the thermodynamics of R-charged black holes with higher derivatives and to investigate their mass to charge ratio in the extremal limit. In five dimensions, there seems to be a connection between the sign of the higher derivative couplings required to satisfy the weak gravity conjecture and that violating the shear viscosity to entropy bound. This is in turn related to possible constraints on the central charges of the dual CFT, in particular to the sign of c-a.

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arXiv2009

Black holes in five-dimensional gauged supergravity with higher derivatives

We examine five-dimensional $\mathcal N=2$ gauged supergravity including terms up to four derivatives. These additional terms correspond to the supersymmetric completion of $R^2$, and were originally obtained in hep-th/0611329 using conformal supergravity techniques. Here we integrate out the auxiliary fields and obtain the on-shell action for minimal supergravity with such corrections. We then construct $R$-charged AdS black holes to linear order in the four derivative terms and investigate the effect of these corrections on their thermodynamical properties. Finally, we relate the geometrical coefficients governing the four-derivative corrections to gauge theory data using holographic anomaly matching. This enables us to obtain a microscopic expression for the entropy of the solutions.

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arXiv2009

Higher derivative effects on eta/s at finite chemical potential

We examine the effects of higher derivative corrections on eta/s, the ratio of shear viscosity to entropy density, in the case of a finite R-charge chemical potential. In particular, we work in the framework of five-dimensional N =2 gauged supergravity, and include terms up to four derivatives, representing the supersymmetric completion of the Chern-Simons term A \wedge Tr (R \wedge R). The addition of the four-derivative terms yields a correction which is a 1/N effect, and in general gives rise to a violation of the eta/s bound. Furthermore, we find that, once the bound is violated, turning on the chemical potential only leads to an even larger violation of the bound.

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arXiv2008

Matrix Model Maps and Reconstruction of AdS SUGRA Interactions

We consider the question of reconstructing (cubic) SUGRA interactions in AdS/CFT. The method we introduce is based on the matrix model maps (MMP) which were previously successfully employed at the linearized level. The strategy is to start with the map for 1/2 BPS configurations which is exactly known (to all orders) in the hamiltonian framework. We then use the extension of the matrix model map with the corresponding Ward identities to completely specify the interaction. A central point in this construction is the non-vanishing of off-shell interactions (even for highest-weight states).

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arXiv2007

Bubbling AdS and droplet descriptions of BPS geometries in IIB supergravity

This paper focuses on supergravity duals of BPS states in N=4 super Yang-Mills. In order to describe these duals, we begin with a sequence of breathing mode reductions of IIB supergravity: first on S^3, then S^3 x S^1, and finally on S^3 x S^1 x CP^1. We then follow with a complete supersymmetry analysis, yielding 1/8, 1/4 and 1/2 BPS configurations, respectively (where in the last step we take the Hopf fibration of S^3). The 1/8 BPS geometries, which have an S^3 isometry and are time-fibered over a six-dimensional base, are determined by solving a non-linear equation for the Kahler metric on the base. Similarly, the 1/4 BPS configurations have an S^3 x S^1 isometry and a four-dimensional base, whose Kahler metric obeys another non-linear, Monge-Ampere type equation. Despite the non-linearity of the problem, we develop a universal bubbling AdS description of these geometries by focusing on the boundary conditions which ensure their regularity. In the 1/8 BPS case, we find that the S^3 cycle shrinks to zero size on a five-dimensional locus inside the six-dimensional base. Enforcing regularity of the full solution requires that the interior of a smooth, generally disconnected five-dimensional surface be removed from the base. The AdS_5 x S^5 ground state corresponds to excising the interior of an S^5, while the 1/8 BPS excitations correspond to deformations (including topology change) of the S^5 and/or the excision of additional droplets from the base. In the case of 1/4 BPS configurations, by enforcing regularity conditions, we identify three-dimensional surfaces inside the four-dimensional base which separate the regions where the S^3 shrinks to zero size from those where the S^1 shrinks.

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arXiv2006

Dilaton Dynamics from Production of Tensionless Membranes

In this paper we consider classical and quantum corrections to cosmological solutions of 11D SUGRA coming from dynamics of membrane states. We first consider the supermembrane spectrum following the approach of Russo and Tseytlin for consistent quantization. We calculate the production rate of BPS membrane bound states in a cosmological background and find that such effects are generically suppressed by the Planck scale, as expected. However, for a modified brane spectrum possessing enhanced symmetry, production can be finite and significant. We stress that this effect could not be anticipated given only a knowledge of the low-energy effective theory. Once on-shell, inclusion of these states leads to an attractive force pulling the dilaton towards a fixed point of S-duality, namely $g_s=1$. Although the SUGRA description breaks down in this regime, inclusion of the enhanced states suggests that the center of M-theory moduli space is a dynamical attractor. Morever, our results seem to suggest that string dynamics does indeed favor a vacuum near fixed points of duality.

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arXiv2005

Tachyon Backgrounds in 2D String Theory

We consider the construction of tachyonic backgrounds in two-dimensional string theory, focusing on the Sine-Liouville background. This can be studied in two different ways, one within the context of collective field theory and the other via the formalism of Toda integrable systems. The two approaches are seemingly different. The latter involves a deformation of the original inverted oscillator potential while the former does not. We perform a comparison by explicitly constructing the Fermi surface in each case, and demonstrate that the two apparently different approaches are in fact equivalent.

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arXiv2004

Cubic interactions in the BMN limit of AdS(3) x S(3)

We study the pp limit of AdS(3) x S(3) at the interaction level. We find the interacting Hamiltonian for the bosonic fields of D=6 SUGRA in the pp-wave background, and compare it to the cubic couplings of the full AdS(3) x S(3). We show how the pp-wave theory vertex arises in the large J limit. Our analysis also provides some insight into the origin of specific prefactors which appear in the pp-wave interaction.

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arXiv2003

Effects of Quantum Deformations on the Spectrum of Cosmological Perturbations

We consider a quantum deformation of the wave equation on a cosmological background as a toy-model for possible trans-Planckian effects. We compute the power spectrum of scalar and tensor fluctuations for power-law inflation, and find a noticeable deviation from the standard result. We consider de Sitter inflation as a special case, and find that the resulting power spectrum is scale invariant. For both inflationary scenarios the departure from the standard spectrum is sensitive to the size of the deformation parameter. A modulation in the power spectrum appears to be a generic feature of the model.

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