arXiv subjects

Shiraz Minwalla

Publications and source records attributed to Shiraz Minwalla.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2018

Bose-Fermi Chern-Simons Dualities in the Higgsed Phase

It has been conjectured that fermions minimally coupled to a Chern-Simons gauge field define a conformal field theory (CFT) that is level-rank dual to Chern-Simons gauged Wilson-Fisher Bosons. The CFTs in question admit relevant deformations parametrized by a real mass. When the mass deformation is positive, the duality of the two deformed theories has previously been checked in detail in the large $N$ limit by comparing explicit all orders results on both sides of the duality. In this paper we perform a similar check for the case of negative mass deformations. In this case the bosonic field condenses triggering the Higgs mechanism. The effective excitations in this phase are massive $W$ bosons. By summing all leading large $N$ graphs involving these $W$ bosons we find an all orders (in the 't Hooft coupling) result for the thermal free energy of the bosonic theory in the condensed phase. Our final answer perfectly matches the previously obtained fermionic free energy under the conjectured duality map.

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arXiv2018

Flows, Fixed Points and Duality in Chern-Simons-matter theories

It has been conjectured that 3d fermions minimally coupled to Chern-Simons gauge fields are dual to 3d critical scalars, also minimally coupled to Chern-Simons gauge fields. The large $N$ arguments for this duality can formally be used to show that Chern-Simons-gauged {\it critical} (Gross-Neveu) fermions are also dual to gauged `{\it regular}' scalars at every order in a $1/N$ expansion, provided both theories are well-defined (when one fine-tunes the two relevant parameters of each of these theories to zero). In the strict large $N$ limit these `quasi-bosonic' theories appear as fixed lines parameterized by $x_6$, the coefficient of a sextic term in the potential. While $x_6$ is an exactly marginal deformation at leading order in large $N$, it develops a non-trivial $β$ function at first subleading order in $1/N$. We demonstrate that the beta function is a cubic polynomial in $x_6$ at this order in $1/N$, and compute the coefficients of the cubic and quadratic terms as a function of the 't Hooft coupling. We conjecture that flows governed by this leading large $N$ beta function have three fixed points for $x_6$ at every non-zero value of the 't Hooft coupling, implying the existence of three distinct regular bosonic and three distinct dual critical fermionic conformal fixed points, at every value of the 't Hooft coupling. We analyze the phase structure of these fixed point theories at zero temperature. We also construct dual pairs of large $N$ fine-tuned renormalization group flows from supersymmetric ${\cal N}=2$ Chern-Simons-matter theories, such that one of the flows ends up in the IR at a regular boson theory while its dual partner flows to a critical fermion theory. This construction suggests that the duality between these theories persists at finite $N$, at least when $N$ is large.

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arXiv2018

An Action for and Hydrodynamics from the improved Large D membrane

It has recently been demonstrated that black hole dynamics at large D is dual to the motion of a probe membrane propagating in the background of a spacetime that solves Einstein's equations. The equation of motion of this membrane is determined by the membrane stress tensor. In this paper we `improve' the membrane stress tensor derived in earlier work to ensure that it defines consistent probe membrane dynamics even at finite $D$ while reducing to previous results at large D. Our improved stress tensor is the sum of a Brown York term and a fluid energy momentum tensor. The fluid has an unusual equation of state; its pressure is nontrivial but its energy density vanishes. We demonstrate that all stationary solutions of our membrane equations are produced by the extremisation of an action functional of the membrane shape. Our action is an offshell generalization of the membrane's thermodynamical partition function. We demonstrate that the thermodynamics of static spherical membranes in flat space and global AdS space exactly reproduces the thermodynamics of the dual Schwarzschild black holes even at finite D. We study the long wavelength dynamics of membranes in AdS space, and demonstrate that the boundary `shadow' of this membrane dynamics is boundary hydrodynamics with with a definite constitutive relation. We determine the explicit form of shadow dual boundary stress tensor upto second order in derivatives of the boundary temperature and velocity, and verify that this stress tensor agrees exactly with the fluid gravity stress tensor to first order in derivatives, but deviates from the later at second order and finite D.

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arXiv2018

Notes on Melonic $O(N)^{q-1}$ Tensor Models

It has recently been demonstrated that the large N limit of a model of fermions charged under the global/gauge symmetry group $O(N)^{q-1}$ agrees with the large $N$ limit of the SYK model. In these notes we investigate aspects of the dynamics of the $O(N)^{q-1}$ theories that differ from their SYK counterparts. We argue that the spectrum of fluctuations about the finite temperature saddle point in these theories has $(q-1)\frac{N^2}{2}$ new light modes in addition to the light Schwarzian mode that exists even in the SYK model, suggesting that the bulk dual description of theories differ significantly if they both exist. We also study the thermal partition function of a mass deformed version of the SYK model. At large mass we show that the effective entropy of this theory grows with energy like $E \ln E$ (i.e. faster than Hagedorn) up to energies of order $N^2$. The canonical partition function of the model displays a deconfinement or Hawking Page type phase transition at temperatures of order $1/\ln N$. We derive these results in the large mass limit but argue that they are qualitatively robust to small corrections in $J/m$.

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arXiv2017

Currents and Radiation from the large $D$ Black Hole Membrane

It has recently been demonstrated that black hole dynamics in a large number of dimensions $D$ reduces to the dynamics of a codimension one membrane propagating in flat space. In this paper we define a stress tensor and charge current on this membrane and explicitly determine these currents at low orders in the expansion in $\frac{1}{D}$. We demonstrate that dynamical membrane equations of motion derived in earlier work are simply conservation equations for our stress tensor and charge current. Through the paper we focus on solutions of the membrane equations which vary on a time scale of order unity. Even though the charge current and stress tensor are not parametrically small in such solutions, we show that the radiation sourced by the corresponding membrane currents is generically of order $\frac{1}{D^D}$. In this regime it follows that the `near horizon' membrane degrees of freedom are decoupled from asymptotic flat space at every perturbative order in the $\frac{1}{D}$ expansion. We also define an entropy current on the membrane and use the Hawking area theorem to demonstrate that the divergence of the entropy current is point wise non negative. We view this result as a local form of the second law of thermodynamics for membrane motion.

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arXiv2016

Unstable `black branes' from scaled membranes at large $D$

It has recently been demonstrated that the dynamics of black holes at large $D$ can be recast as a set of non gravitational membrane equations. These membrane equations admit a simple static solution with shape $S^{D-p-2} \times R^{p,1}$. In this note we study the equations for small fluctuations about this solution in a limit in which amplitude and length scale of the fluctuations are simultaneously scaled to zero as $D$ is taken to infinity. We demonstrate that the resultant nonlinear equations, which capture the Gregory- Laflamme instability and its end point, exactly agree with the effective dynamical `black brane' equations of Emparan Suzuki and Tanabe. Our results thus identify the `black brane' equations as a special limit of the membrane equations and so unify these approaches to large $D$ black hole dynamics.

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arXiv2016

The large D black hole Membrane Paradigm at first subleading order

In the large D limit, and under certain circumstances, it has recently been demonstrated that black hole dynamics in asymptotically flat spacetime reduces to the dynamics of a non gravitational membrane propagating in flat D dimensional spacetime. We demonstrate that this correspondence extends to all orders in a 1/D expansion and outline a systematic method for deriving the corrected membrane equation in a power series expansion in 1/D. As an illustration of our method we determine the first subleading corrections to the membrane equations of motion. A qualitatively new effect at this order is that the divergence of the membrane velocity is nonzero and proportional to the square of the shear tensor reminiscent of the entropy current of hydrodynamics. As a test, we use our modified membrane equations to compute the corrections to frequencies of light quasinormal modes about the Schwarzschild black hole and find a perfect match with earlier computations performed directly in the gravitational bulk.

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arXiv2016

A Charged Membrane Paradigm at Large D

We study the effective dynamics of black hole horizons in Einstein-Maxwell theory in a large number of spacetime dimensions $D$. We demonstrate that horizon dynamics may be recast as a well posed initial value problem for the motion of a codimension one non gravitational membrane moving in flat space. The dynamical degrees of freedom of this membrane are its shape, charge density and a divergence free velocity field. We determine the equations that govern membrane dynamics at leading order in the large $D$ expansion. Our derivation of the membrane equations assumes that the solution preserves an SO$(D-p-2)$ isometry with $p$ held fixed as $D$ is taken to infinity. However we are able to cast our final membrane equations into a completely geometric form that makes no reference to this symmetry algebra.

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arXiv2016

A membrane paradigm at large D

We study $SO(d+1)$ invariant solutions of the classical vacuum Einstein equations in $p+d+3$ dimensions. In the limit $d \to \infty$ with $p$ held fixed we construct a class of solutions labelled by the shape of a membrane (the event horizon), together with a `velocity' field that lives on this membrane. We demonstrate that our metrics can be corrected to nonsingular solutions at first sub-leading order in $\frac{1}{d}$ if and only if the membrane shape and `velocity' field obey equations of motion which we determine. These equations define a well posed initial value problem for the membrane shape and this `velocity' and so completely determinethe dynamics of the black hole. They may be viewed as governing the non-linear dynamics of the light quasi normal modes of Emparan, Suzuki and Tanabe.

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arXiv2016

Chern Simons Bosonization along RG Flows

It has previously been conjectured that the theory of free fundamental scalars minimally coupled to a Chern Simons gauge field is dual to the theory of critical fundamental fermions minimally coupled to a level rank dual Chern Simons gauge field. In this paper we study RG flows away from these two fixed points by turning on relevant operators. In the t' Hooft large N limit we compute the thermal partition along each of these flows and find a map of parameters under which the two partition functions agree exactly with each other all the way from the UV to the IR. We conjecture that the bosonic and fermionic RG flows are dual to each other under this map of parameters. Our flows can be tuned to end at the gauged critical scalar theory and gauged free fermionic theories respectively. Assuming the validity of our conjecture, this tuned trajectory may be viewed as RG flow from the gauged theory of free bosons to the gauged theory of free fermions.

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arXiv2015

Unitarity, Crossing Symmetry and Duality in the scattering of ${\cal N}=1$ Susy Matter Chern-Simons theories

We study the most general renormalizable ${\cal N}=1$ $U(N)$ Chern-Simons gauge theory coupled to a single (generically massive) fundamental matter multiplet. At leading order in the 't Hooft large $N$ limit we present computations and conjectures for the $2 \times 2$ $S$ matrix in these theories; our results apply at all orders in the 't Hooft coupling and the matter self interaction. Our $S$ matrices are in perfect agreement with the recently conjectured strong weak coupling self duality of this class of theories. The consistency of our results with unitarity requires a modification of the usual rules of crossing symmetry in precisely the manner anticipated in arXiv:1404.6373, lending substantial support to the conjectures of that paper. In a certain range of coupling constants our $S$ matrices have a pole whose mass vanishes on a self dual codimension one surface in the space of couplings.

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arXiv2015

Poles in the $S$-Matrix of Relativistic Chern-Simons Matter theories from Quantum Mechanics

An all orders formula for the $S$-matrix for 2 $\rightarrow$ 2 scattering in large N Chern-Simons theory coupled to a fundamental scalar has recently been conjectured. We find a scaling limit of the theory in which the pole in this $S$-matrix is near threshold. We argue that the theory must be well described by non-relativistic quantum mechanics in this limit, and determine the relevant Schroedinger equation. We demonstrate that the $S$-matrix obtained from this Schroedinger equation agrees perfectly with this scaling limit of the relativistic $S$-matrix; in particular the pole structures match exactly. We view this matching as a nontrivial consistency check of the conjectured field theory $S$-matrix.

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arXiv2015

Unitarity, Crossing Symmetry and Duality of the S-matrix in large N Chern-Simons theories with fundamental matter

We present explicit computations and conjectures for $2 \to 2$ scattering matrices in large $N$ {\it $U(N)$} Chern-Simons theories coupled to fundamental bosonic or fermionic matter to all orders in the 't Hooft coupling expansion. The bosonic and fermionic S-matrices map to each other under the recently conjectured Bose-Fermi duality after a level-rank transposition. The S-matrices presented in this paper may be regarded as relativistic generalization of Aharonov-Bohm scattering. They have unusual structural features: they include a non analytic piece localized on forward scattering, and obey modified crossing symmetry rules. We conjecture that these unusual features are properties of S-matrices in all Chern-Simons matter theories. The S-matrix in one of the exchange channels in our paper has an anyonic character; the parameter map of the conjectured Bose-Fermi duality may be derived by equating the anyonic phase in the bosonic and fermionic theories.

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arXiv2014

A theory of first order dissipative superfluid dynamics

We determine the most general form of the equations of relativistic superfluid hydrodynamics consistent with Lorentz invariance, time-reversal invariance, the Onsager principle and the second law of thermodynamics at first order in the derivative expansion. Once parity is violated, either because the $U(1)$ symmetry is anomalous or as a consequence of a different parity-breaking mechanism, our results deviate from the standard textbook analysis of superfluids. Our general equations require the specification of twenty parameters (such as the viscosity and conductivity). In the limit of small relative superfluid velocities we find a seven parameter set of equations. In the same limit, we have used the AdS/CFT correspondence to compute the parity odd contributions to the superfluid equations of motion for a generic holographic model and have verified that our results are consistent.

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arXiv2013

Phases of large $N$ vector Chern-Simons theories on $S^2 \times S^1$

We study the thermal partition function of level $k$ U(N) Chern-Simons theories on $S^2$ interacting with matter in the fundamental representation. We work in the 't Hooft limit, $N,k\to\infty$, with $λ= N/k$ and $\frac{T^2 V_{2}}{N}$ held fixed where $T$ is the temperature and $V_{2}$ the volume of the sphere. An effective action proposed in arXiv:1211.4843 relates the partition function to the expectation value of a `potential' function of the $S^1$ holonomy in pure Chern-Simons theory; in several examples we compute the holonomy potential as a function of $λ$. We use level rank duality of pure Chern-Simons theory to demonstrate the equality of thermal partition functions of previously conjectured dual pairs of theories as a function of the temperature. We reduce the partition function to a matrix integral over holonomies. The summation over flux sectors quantizes the eigenvalues of this matrix in units of ${2π\over k}$ and the eigenvalue density of the holonomy matrix is bounded from above by $\frac{1}{2 πλ}$. The corresponding matrix integrals generically undergo two phase transitions as a function of temperature. For several Chern-Simons matter theories we are able to exactly solve the relevant matrix models in the low temperature phase, and determine the phase transition temperature as a function of $λ$. At low temperatures our partition function smoothly matches onto the $N$ and $λ$ independent free energy of a gas of non renormalized multi trace operators. We also find an exact solution to a simple toy matrix model; the large $N$ Gross-Witten-Wadia matrix integral subject to an upper bound on eigenvalue density.

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arXiv2013

Chern Simons duality with a fundamental boson and fermion

We compute the thermal free energy for all renormalizable Chern Simon theories coupled to a single fundamental bosonic and fermionic field in the 't Hooft large N limit. We use our results to conjecture a strong weak coupling duality invariance for this class of theories. Our conjectured duality reduces to Giveon Kutasov duality when restricted to {\cal N}=2 supersymmetric theories and to an earlier conjectured bosonization duality in an appropriate decoupling limit. Consequently the bosonization duality may be regarded as a deformation of Giveon Kutasov duality, suggesting that it is true even at large but finite N.

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arXiv2012

ABJ Triality: from Higher Spin Fields to Strings

We demonstrate that a supersymmetric and parity violating version of Vasiliev's higher spin gauge theory in AdS$_4$ admits boundary conditions that preserve ${\cal N}=0,1,2,3,4$ or 6 supersymmetries. In particular, we argue that the Vasiliev theory with U(M) Chan-Paton and ${\cal N}=6$ boundary condition is holographically dual to the 2+1 dimensional $U(N)_k\times U(M)_{-k}$ ABJ theory in the limit of large $N,k$ and finite $M$. In this system all bulk higher spin fields transform in the adjoint of the U(M) gauge group, whose bulk t'Hooft coupling is $\frac{M}{N}$. Analysis of boundary conditions in Vasiliev theory allows us to determine exact relations between the parity breaking phase of Vasiliev theory and the coefficients of two and three point functions in Chern-Simons vector models at large $N$. Our picture suggests that the supersymmetric Vasiliev theory can be obtained as a limit of type IIA string theory in AdS$_4\times \mathbb{CP}^3$, and that the non-Abelian Vasiliev theory at strong bulk 't Hooft coupling smoothly turn into a string field theory. The fundamental string is a singlet bound state of Vasiliev's higher spin particles held together by U(M) gauge interactions. This is illustrated by the thermal partition function of free ABJ theory on a two sphere at large $M$ and $N$ even in the analytically tractable free limit. In this system the traces or strings of the low temperature phase break up into their Vasiliev particulate constituents at a U(M) deconfinement phase transition of order unity. At a higher temperature of order $T=\sqrt{\frac{N}{M}}$ Vasiliev's higher spin fields themselves break up into more elementary constituents at a U(N) deconfinement temperature, in a process described in the bulk as black hole nucleation.

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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.

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