arXiv subjects

Stephane Detournay

Publications and source records attributed to Stephane Detournay.

18 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Universal sectors of two-dimensional Carrollian CFTs

We revisit modular invariance in two-dimensional Carrollian conformal field theories from a geometric perspective. Focusing on the characters of the induced and highest-weight representations of the theory, we show that there are regions of parameter space where the vacuum character dominates in the dual channel. We use this property to zoom into different subsectors of the Carrollian theory. One of them is reminiscent of the Schwarzian sector of a relativistic CFT2 and has a flat space holographic interpretation as O-plane orbifold. It exists only for the highest-weight representation. We prove that for all sectors with vacuum dominance in the dual channel, the specific heat is negative, concurrent with the holographic interpretation of the negative specific heat of asymptotically flat spacetimes with horizons.

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arXiv2025

Anisotropic conformal Carroll field theories and their gravity duals

We investigate anisotropic conformal Carroll field theories and their holographic duals. On the field theory side, we focus on the case with scaling exponent $z=0$ in two and three spacetime dimensions. These theories exhibit infinite-dimensional symmetry algebras, including supertranslations and superrotations, and are closely related to, but distinct from, Warped Conformal Field Theories. We construct the associated Carrollian stress tensor, derive its transformation properties, and analyse the structure of correlation functions under different choices of vacua. On the gravity side, we identify three and four-dimensional plane wave geometries whose isometry algebras realise the two- and three-dimensional Carroll algebra and anisotropic scale transformations. We propose, for each scaling exponent, a phase space of asymptotically-plane wave spacetimes and show that the residual diffeomorphisms reproduce the expected conformal Carroll field theory algebra, establishing a framework for anisotropic Carrollian holography.

hep-th↗

arXiv2019

TsT, $T\bar{T}$ and black strings

We study the relationship between TsT transformations, marginal deformations of string theory on AdS$_3$ backgrounds, and irrelevant deformations of 2d CFTs. We show that TsT transformations of NS-NS backgrounds correspond to instantaneous deformations of the worldsheet action by the antisymmetric product of two Noether currents, holographically mirroring the definition of the $T\bar{T}$, $J\bar{T}$, $T\bar{J}$, and $J\bar{J}$ deformations of 2d CFTs. Applying a TsT transformation to string theory on BTZ $\times S^3\times M^4$ we obtain a general class of rotating black string solutions, including the Horne-Horowitz and the Giveon-Itzhaki-Kutasov ones as special cases, which we show are holographically dual to thermal states in single-trace $T\bar{T}$-deformed CFTs. We also find a smooth solution interpolating between global AdS$_3$ in the IR and a linear dilaton background in the UV that is interpreted as the NS-NS ground state in the dual $T\bar{T}$-deformed CFT. This background suggests the existence of an upper bound on the deformation parameter above which the solution becomes complex. We find that the worldsheet spectrum, the thermodynamics of the black strings (in particular their Bekenstein-Hawking entropy), and the critical value of the deformation parameter match the corresponding quantities obtained from single-trace $T\bar{T}$ deformations.

hep-th↗

arXiv2016

Soft Heisenberg hair on black holes in three dimensions

Three-dimensional Einstein gravity with negative cosmological constant admits stationary black holes that are not necessarily spherically symmetric. We propose boundary conditions for the near horizon region of these black holes that lead to a surprisingly simple near horizon symmetry algebra consisting of two affine u(1) current algebras. The symmetry algebra is essentially equivalent to the Heisenberg algebra. The associated charges give a specific example of "soft hair" on the horizon, as defined by Hawking, Perry and Strominger. We show that soft hair does not contribute to the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy of Banados-Teitelboim-Zanelli black holes and "black flower" generalizations. From the near horizon perspective the conformal generators at asymptotic infinity appear as composite operators, which we interpret in the spirit of black hole complementarity. Another remarkable feature of our boundary conditions is that they are singled out by requiring that the whole spectrum is compatible with regularity at the horizon, regardless the value of the global charges like mass or angular momentum. Finally, we address black hole microstates and generalizations to cosmological horizons.

hep-th↗

arXiv2014

Holographic entanglement entropy and gravitational anomalies

We study entanglement entropy in two-dimensional conformal field theories with a gravitational anomaly. In theories with gravity duals, this anomaly is holographically represented by a gravitational Chern-Simons term in the bulk action. We show that the anomaly broadens the Ryu-Takayanagi minimal worldline into a ribbon, and that the anomalous contribution to the CFT entanglement entropy is given by the twist in this ribbon. The entanglement functional may also be interpreted as the worldline action for a spinning particle -- that is, an anyon -- in three-dimensional curved spacetime. We demonstrate that the minimization of this action results in the Mathisson-Papapetrou-Dixon equations of motion for a spinning particle in three dimensions. We work out several simple examples and demonstrate agreement with CFT calculations.

hep-th↗

arXiv2014

Variational principle and 1-point functions in 3-dimensional flat space Einstein gravity

We provide a well-defined variational principle for 3-dimensional flat space Einstein gravity by adding one half of the Gibbons-Hawking-York boundary term to the bulk action. We check the 0-point function, recovering consistency with thermodynamics of flat space cosmologies. We then apply our result to calculate the 1-point functions in flat space Einstein gravity for the vacuum and all flat space cosmologies. The results are compatible with the ones for the zero mode charges obtained by canonical analysis.

hep-th↗

arXiv2013

Cosmic evolution from phase transition of 3-dimensional flat space

Flat space cosmology spacetimes are exact time-dependent solutions of 3-dimensional gravity theories, such as Einstein gravity or topologically massive gravity. We exhibit a novel kind of phase transition between these cosmological spacetimes and the Minkowski vacuum. At sufficiently high temperature (rotating) hot flat space tunnels into a universe described by flat space cosmology.

hep-th↗

arXiv2013

Baby de Sitter Black Holes and dS$_3$/CFT$_2$

Unlike three-dimensional Einstein gravity, three-dimensional massive gravity admits asymptotically de Sitter space (dS) black hole solutions. These black holes present interesting features and provide us with toy models to study the dS/CFT correspondence. A remarkable property of these black holes is that they are always in thermal equilibrium with the cosmological horizon of the space that hosts them. This invites us to study the thermodynamics of these solutions within the context of dS/CFT. We study the asymptotic symmetry group of the theory and find that it indeed coincides with the local two-dimensional conformal algebra. The charge algebra associated to the asymptotic Killing vectors consists of two copies of the Virasoro algebra with non-vanishing central extension. We compute the mass and angular momentum of the dS black holes and verify that a naive application of Cardy's formula exactly reproduces the entropy of both the black hole and the cosmological horizon. By adapting the holographic renormalization techniques to the case of dS space, we define the boundary stress tensor of the dual Euclidean conformal field theory.

hep-th↗

arXiv2012

Stringy Schroedinger truncations

Motivated by the desire to better understand finite-temperature holography for three-dimensional Schroedinger spacetimes, we: i) construct a four-parameter family of warped black string solutions of type IIB supergravity and ii) find the first consistent truncations of type IIB string theory to three dimensions that admit both supersymmetric Schroedinger solutions and warped generalizations of the BTZ black hole. Our analysis reveals a number of interesting features. One is that the thermodynamic properties of all the warped black strings, as well as the asymptotic symmetry group data, are identical to those of BTZ, in an appropriate parametrization. A more striking feature is that the spectrum of linearized perturbations around the various supersymmetric Schroedinger vacua oftentimes contains modes that carry energy flux through the spacetime boundary, which are usually believed to be unstable. A preliminary analysis indicates that, at least in the case of most interest, these modes do not lead to an instability.

hep-th↗

arXiv2012

Holography For a De Sitter-Esque Geometry

Warped dS$_3$ arises as a solution to topologically massive gravity (TMG) with positive cosmological constant $+1/\ell^2$ and Chern-Simons coefficient $1/μ$ in the region $μ^2 \ell^2 < 27$. It is given by a real line fibration over two-dimensional de Sitter space and is equivalent to the rotating Nariai geometry at fixed polar angle. We study the thermodynamic and asymptotic structure of a family of geometries with warped dS$_3$ asymptotics. Interestingly, these solutions have both a cosmological horizon and an internal one, and their entropy is unbounded from above unlike black holes in regular de Sitter space. The asymptotic symmetry group resides at future infinity and is given by a semi-direct product of a Virasoro algebra and a current algebra. The right moving central charge vanishes when $μ^2 \ell^2 = 27/5$. We discuss the possible holographic interpretation of these de Sitter-esque spacetimes.

hep-th↗

arXiv2012

Warped Conformal Field Theory

We study field theories in two spacetime dimensions invariant under a chiral scaling symmetry that acts only on right-movers. The local symmetries include one copy of the Virasoro algebra and a U(1) current algebra. This differs from the 2d conformal group, but in some respects is equally powerful in constraining the theory. In particular, the symmetries on a torus lead to modular covariance of the partition function, which is used to derive a universal formula for the asymptotic density of states. For an application we turn to the holographic description of black holes in quantum gravity, motivated by the fact that the symmetries in the near horizon geometry of any extremal black hole are identical to those of a 2d field theory with chiral scaling. We consider two examples: black holes in warped AdS_3 in topologically massive gravity, and in string theory. In both cases, the density of states in the 2d field theory reproduces the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy of black holes in the gravity theory.

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arXiv2012

Flat-Space Chiral Gravity

We provide the first evidence for a holographic correspondence between a gravitational theory in flat space and a specific unitary field theory in one dimension lower. The gravitational theory is a flat-space limit of topologically massive gravity in three dimensions at Chern-Simons level k=1. The field theory is a chiral two-dimensional conformal field theory with central charge c=24.

hep-th↗

arXiv2012

Holography of 3d Flat Cosmological Horizons

We provide a first derivation of the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy of 3d flat cosmological horizons in terms of the counting of states in a dual field theory. These horizons appear in the shifted-boost orbifold of R^{1,2}, the flat limit of non-extremal rotating BTZ black holes. These 3d geometries carry non-zero charges under the asymptotic symmetry algebra of R^{1,2}, the 3d Bondi-Metzner-Sachs (BMS3) algebra. The dual theory has the symmetries of the 2d Galilean Conformal Algebra, a contraction of two copies of the Virasoro algebra, which is isomorphic to BMS3. We study flat holography as a limit of AdS3/CFT2 to semi-classically compute the density of states in the dual, exactly reproducing the bulk entropy in the limit of large charges. Our flat horizons, remnants of the BTZ inner horizons also satisfy a first law of thermodynamics. We comment on how the dual theory reproduces the bulk first law and how cosmological bulk excitations are matched with boundary quantum numbers.

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arXiv2009

Generalized instantons in N = 4 super Yang-Mills theory and spinorial geometry

Using spinorial geometry techniques, we classify the supersymmetric solutions of euclidean ${\cal N}=4$ super Yang-Mills theory. These backgrounds represent generalizations of instantons with nontrivial scalar fields turned on, and satisfy some constraints that bear a similarity with the Hitchin equations, and contain the Donaldson equations as a special subcase. It turns out that these constraints can be obtained by dimensional reduction of the octonionic instanton equations, and may be rephrased in terms of a selfduality-like condition for a complex connection. We also show that the supersymmetry conditions imply the equations of motion only partially.

hep-th↗

arXiv2009

Centrally extended symmetry algebra of asymptotically Goedel spacetimes

We define an asymptotic symmetry algebra for three-dimensional Goedel spacetimes supported by a gauge field which turns out to be the semi-direct sum of the diffeomorphisms on the circle with two loop algebras. A class of fields admitting this asymptotic symmetry algebra and leading to well-defined conserved charges is found. The covariant Poisson bracket of the conserved charges is then shown to be centrally extended to the semi-direct sum of a Virasoro algebra and two affine algebras.

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arXiv2006

Deformations of anti-de Sitter black holes

This PhD thesis mainly deals with deformations of locally anti-de Sitter black holes, focusing in particular on BTZ black holes. We first study the generic rotating and (extended) non-rotating BTZ black holes within a pseudo-Riemannian symmetric spaces framework, emphasize on the role played by solvable subgroups of SL(2,R) in the black hole structure and derive their global geometry in a group-theoretical way. We analyse how these observations are transposed in the case of higher-dimensional locally AdS black holes. We then show that there exists, in SL(2,R), a family of twisted conjugacy classes which give rise to winding symmetric WZW D1-branes in a BTZ black hole background. The term "deformation" is then considered in two distinct ways. On the one hand, we deform the algebra of functions on the branes in the sense of (strict) deformation quantization, giving rise to a "noncommutative black hole". In the same context, we investigate the question of invariant deformations of the hyperbolic plane and present explicit formulae. On the other hand, we explore the moduli space of the (orbifolded) SL(2,R) WZW model by studying its marginal deformations, yielding namely a new class of exact black string solutions in string theory. These deformations also allow us to relate the D1-branes in BTZ black holes to D0-branes in the 2D black hole. A fair proportion of this thesis consists of (hopefully) pedagogical short introductions to various subjects: deformation quantization, string theory, WZW models, symmetric spaces, symplectic and Poisson geometry.

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arXiv2005

Noncommutative Locally Anti-de Sitter Black Holes

We give a review of our joint work on strict deformation of BHTZ 2+1 black holes \cite{BRS02,BDHRS03}. However some results presented here are not published elsewhere, and an effort is made for enlightening the instrinsical aspect of the constructions. This shows in particular that the three dimensional case treated here could be generalized to an anti-de Sitter space of arbitrary dimension provided one disposes of a universal deformation formula for the actions of a parabolic subgroup of its isometry group.

math.QA↗

arXiv2005

Three-dimensional black holes from deformed anti-de Sitter

We present new exact three-dimensional black-string backgrounds, which contain both NS--NS and electromagnetic fields, and generalize the BTZ black holes and the black string studied by Horne and Horowitz. They are obtained as deformations of the Sl(2,R) WZW model. Black holes resulting from purely continuous deformations possess true curvature singularities. When discrete identifications are introduced, extra chronological singularities appear, which under certain circumstances turn out to be naked. The backgrounds at hand appear in the moduli space of the Sl(2,R) WZW model. Hence, they provide exact string backgrounds and allow for a more algebraical CFT description. This makes possible the determination of the spectrum of primaries.

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