arXiv subjects

Yasha Neiman

Publications and source records attributed to Yasha Neiman.

46 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2013

The imaginary part of the gravitational action at asymptotic boundaries and horizons

We study the imaginary part of the Lorentzian gravitational action for bounded regions, as described in arXiv:1301.7041. By comparing to a Euclidean calculation, we explain the agreement between the formula for this imaginary part and the formula for black hole entropy. We also clarify the topological structure of the imaginary part in Lovelock gravity. We then evaluate the action's imaginary part for some special regions. These include cylindrical slabs spanning the exterior of a stationary black hole spacetime, 'maximal diamonds' in various symmetric spacetimes, as well as local near-horizon regions. In the first setup, the black hole's entropy and conserved charges contribute to the action's imaginary and real parts, respectively. In the other two setups, the imaginary part coincides with the relevant entropy.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2013

Anomalies in Superfluids and a Chiral Electric Effect

We analyze the chiral transport terms in relativistic superfluid hydrodynamics. In addition to the spontaneously broken symmetry current, we consider an arbitrary number of unbroken symmetries and extend the results of arXiv:1105.3733. We suggest an interpretation of some of the new transport coefficients in terms of chiral and gravitational anomalies. In particular, we show that with unbroken gauged charges in the system, one can observe a chiral electric conductivity - a current in a perpendicular direction to the applied electric field. We present a motivated proposal for the value of the associated transport coefficient, linking it to the triangle anomaly. Along the way we present new arguments regarding the interpretation of the anomalous transport coefficients in normal fluids. We propose a natural generalization of the chiral transport terms to the case of an arbitrary number of spontaneously broken symmetry currents.

hep-th↗

arXiv2013

The imaginary part of the gravity action and black hole entropy

As observed recently in arXiv:1212.2922, the action of General Relativity (GR) in finite spacetime regions has an imaginary part that resembles the Bekenstein entropy. In this paper, we expand on that argument, with attention to different causal types of boundaries. This property of the GR action may open a new approach to the puzzles of gravitational entropy. In particular, the imaginary action can be evaluated for non-stationary finite regions, where the notion of entropy is not fully understood. As a first step in constructing the precise relationship between the imaginary action and entropy, we focus on stationary black hole spacetimes. There, we identify a class of bounded regions for which the action's imaginary part precisely equals the black hole entropy. As a powerful test on the validity of the approach, we also calculate the imaginary action for Lovelock gravity. The result is related to the corresponding entropy formula in the same way as in GR.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2013

Causal cells: spacetime polytopes with null hyperfaces

We consider polyhedra and 4-polytopes in Minkowski spacetime - in particular, null polyhedra with zero volume, and 4-polytopes that have such polyhedra as their hyperfaces. We present the basic properties of several classes of null-faced 4-polytopes: 4-simplices, "tetrahedral diamonds" and 4-parallelotopes. We propose a "most regular" representative of each class. The most-regular parallelotope is of particular interest: its edges, faces and hyperfaces are all congruent, and it features both null hyperplanes and null segments. A tiling of spacetime with copies of this polytope can be viewed alternatively as a lattice with null edges, such that each point is at the intersection of four lightrays in a tetrahedral pattern. We speculate on the relevance of this construct for discretizations of curved spacetime and for quantum gravity.

math.CO↗

arXiv2012

Fluid/Gravity Correspondence, Local Wald Entropy Current and Gravitational Anomaly

We propose, in the framework of the fluid/gravity correspondence, a definition for a local horizon entropy current for higher-curvature gravitational theories. The current is well-defined to first order in fluid gradients for general gravity actions with an algebraic dependence on the Riemann tensor. As a detailed example, we consider five-dimensional Einstein-Maxwell theory with a mixed gauge-gravitational Chern-Simons term. In this theory, we construct the proposed entropy current on a charged black-brane background, and show that it has a non-negative divergence. Moreover, a complete correspondence between the charged black-brane horizon's dynamics and the hydrodynamics of an anomalous four-dimensional field theory is established. Our proposed entropy current is then found to coincide with the entropy current of the anomalous field theory fluid.

hep-th↗

arXiv2012

Parity and reality properties of the EPRL spinfoam

We study the parity behavior of the Lorentzian EPRL spinfoam model. We demonstrate that the vertex amplitude does not depend on the sign of the Immirzi parameter. We present numerical results for the transition amplitude and the graviton propagator in the large-spin 4-simplex approximation. The results suggest a simple relation between the contributions of the two parity-related critical points. Finally, we observe that the graviton propagator is not invariant under parity-odd permutations of equivalent nodes. Thus, the Lorentzian model has the same chirality problem as the Euclidean.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2011

Chiral anomalies in superfluid hydrodynamics

This is a brief report of work performed in arXiv:1106.3576. We consider the chiral transport terms in a relativistic charged superfluid, and their relation to triangle anomalies. The terms allowed by the Second Law of thermodynamics have been worked out. A simplified form is proposed on heuristic grounds, from an analysis of the better-understood chiral effects in normal fluids. We point out the appearance of a "chiral electric conductivity", and relate it through an educated guess to the axial anomaly coefficient.

hep-th↗

arXiv2010

Membrane Paradigm and Holographic Hydrodynamics

We discuss recent work showing that in certain cases the membrane paradigm equations governing the dynamics of black hole horizons can be recast as relativistic conservation law equations. In the context of gauge/gravity dualities, these equations are interpreted as defining the viscous hydrodynamics of a holographically dual relativistic field theory. Using this approach, one can derive the viscous transport coefficients and the form of the entropy current for field theories dual to gravity plus matter fields.

hep-th↗

arXiv2010

Holographic Non-Abelian Charged Hydrodynamics from the Dynamics of Null Horizons

We analyze the dynamics of a four-dimensional null hypersurface in a five-dimensional bulk spacetime with Einstein-Yang-Mills fields. In an appropriate ansatz, the projection of the field equations onto the hypersurface takes the form of conservation laws for relativistic hydrodynamics with global non-abelian charges. A Chern-Simons term in the bulk action corresponds to anomalies in the global charges, with a vorticity term arising in the hydrodynamics. We derive the entropy current and obtain unique expressions for some of the leading-order transport coefficients (in the abelian case, all of them) for arbitrary equations of state. As a special case and a concrete example, we discuss the event horizon of a boosted Einstein-Yang-Mills black brane in an asymptotically Anti-de-Sitter spacetime. The evolution equations in that case describe the hydrodynamic limit of a conformal field theory with anomalous global non-abelian charges on the Anti-de-Sitter boundary.

hep-th↗

arXiv2010

Relativistic Hydrodynamics with General Anomalous Charges

We consider the hydrodynamic regime of gauge theories with general triangle anomalies, where the participating currents may be global or gauged, abelian or non-abelian. We generalize the argument of arXiv:0906.5044, and construct at the viscous order the stress-energy tensor, the charge currents and the entropy current.

hep-th↗