arXiv subjects

Zhao-Long Wang

Publications and source records attributed to Zhao-Long Wang.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

On AdS$_4$ superspace and supergravity

In the $N=1$ superspace, AdS$_4$ supersymmetry is realized as the non-linear super coordinate transformations. The fermionic coordinates form a faithful non-linear representation of supersymmetry on their own. By introducing an auxiliary scalar coordinate, this representation is reformulated as a 5-dimensional linear representation, i.e., the superspinor representation. New linear representations are constructed by tensor products of multiple superspinors. Especially, the superspace bosonic coordinates are embedded in the supervector representation, which is the traceless symmetric part of the bi-superspinor representation. Based on these linear representations, the $N=1$ AdS$_4$ supergravity action can be reproduced in a manifestly supersymmetry-covariant way.

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arXiv2024

A toy model for $p$-form gauge symmetry

The abelian $(p+1)$-form gauge field is inherently coupled to the $p$-brane worldvolume. After quantization, the corresponding $p$-form gauge transformation is associated with the local phase ambiguity of the $p$-brane wave functional. In essence, the $p$-form gauge symmetry can be realized as a special construction of the generic 0-form gauge symmetry in the functional space of $p$-brane configurations. The non-abelian generalization is straightforward in the functional space language. To simplify the analysis, we further introduce a toy model where the infinite dimensional functional space of $p$-brane configurations is replaced by a finite dimensional matrix space. After taking the symmetric trace in the matrix model, the original discussions of the $p$-form gauge symmetry can be inherited by the toy model.

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arXiv2021

AdS gravity, SO(2,d) gauge theory and Holography

Inspired by the general relation between the boundary global symmetry and the bulk gauge symmetry in AdS/CFT, we reformulate the $d+1$ dimensional AdS gravity theory as a $SO(2,d)$ gauge theory. In this formalism, the pull back of the bulk equation of motion onto a co-dimension one hypersurface $Σ$ can be naturally related to the $SO(2,d)$ conservation law under a local energy scale in the dual CFT. The consistency of CFT requires that the $SO(2,d)$ covariant anomaly vanishes at arbitrary scale. After imposing a covariant area law as the renormalization condition, the vanishing of $SO(2,d)$ anomaly implies that the dual bulk geometries must satisfy the Einstein equation.

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arXiv2021

Holographic $SO(2,d)$ anomaly

In the $SO(2,d)$ gauge theory formalism of AdS gravity established in arXiv:1811.05286, the dynamics of bulk gravity emerges from the vanishing of the boundary covariant anomaly for the $SO(2,d)$ conservation law. In parallel with the known results on chiral anomalies, we establish the descendent structure of the holographic $SO(2,d)$ anomaly. The corresponding anomaly characteristic class, bulk Chern-Simons like action as well as the boundary effective action are constructed systematically. The anomalous conservation law is presented both in the covariant and consistent formalisms. Due to the existence of the ruler field, not only the Bardeen-Zumino polynomial, but also the covariant and consistent currents are explicitly constructed.

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arXiv2019

Black Holes That Repel

The recent observation that black holes in certain Einstein-Maxwell-Dilaton (EMD) theories can violate the entropy super-additivity led to the suggestion that these black holes might repel each other. In this paper, we consider EMD theories with two Maxwell fields $A_i$, with general exponential couplings $\exp(a_i ϕ)$ in their kinetic terms. We calculate the gravi-electrostatic force between charged black holes $(m_1,e_1)$ and $(M_2,Q_2)$; the former is sufficiently small and can be treated as a point-like object. We find there is a potential barrier caused by the dilaton coupling at $r_0$ outside the back hole horizon $r_+$, provided that $-a_1 a_2> 2(D-3)/(D-2)$. As the black hole approaches extremality, both $r_+$ and $r_0$ vanish, the barrier becomes infinitesimally thin but infinitely high, and the two black holes repel each other in the whole space. There is no electrostatic force between them; the dilaton is the antigravity agent. Furthermore we find that the exact constraint on $a_1 a_2$ can be derived from the requirements that two-charged extremal black holes have a fusion bomb like mass formula and the violation of entropy super-additivity can occur. The two very different approaches give a consistent picture of the black hole repulsion.

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arXiv2017

Bulk Local Operators, Conformal Descendants and Radial Quantization

We establish a construction of the bulk local operators in AdS by considering CFT at finite energy scale. Without assuming any prior knowledge about the bulk, the normalizable solution to the bulk free field equation automatically appears in the field theory arguments. In the radial quantization formalism, we find a properly regularized version of our initial construction. Possible generalizations beyond pure AdS are also discussed.

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arXiv2013

Abelianization of BPS Quivers and the Refined Higgs Index

We count Higgs "phase" BPS states of general non-Abelian quiver, possibly with loops, by mapping the problem to its Abelian, or toric, counterpart and imposing Weyl invariance later. Precise Higgs index computation is particularly important for quivers with superpotentials; the Coulomb "phase" index is recently shown to miss important BPS states, dubbed intrinsic Higgs states or quiver invariants. We demonstrate how the refined Higgs index is naturally decomposed to a sum over partitions of the charge. We conjecture, and show in simple cases, that this decomposition expresses the Higgs index as a sum over a set of partition-induced Abelian quivers of the same total charge but generically of smaller rank. Unlike the previous approach inspired by a similar decomposition of the Coulomb index, our formulae compute the quiver invariants directly, and thus offer a self-complete routine for counting BPS states.

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arXiv2013

Fermi Surfaces and Analytic Green's Functions from Conformal Gravity

We construct T^2-symmetric charged AdS black holes in conformal gravity. The most general solution up to an overall conformal factor contains three non-trivial parameters: the mass, electric charge and a quantity that can be identified as the massive spin-2 hair. We study the Dirac equation for the charged massless spinor in this background. The equation can be solved in terms of the general Heun's function for generic frequency ωand wave number k. This allows us to obtain the analytic Green's function G(ω, k) for both extremal and non-extremal black holes. For some special choice of back hole parameters, we find that the Green's function reduces to simpler hypergeometric or confluent hypergeometric functions. We study the Fermi surfaces associated with the poles of the Green's function with vanishing ω. We find examples where the Fermi surfaces for non-Fermi liquids as well as the characteristic Fermi ones can arise. We illustrate the non-trivial differences in the Green's function and Fermi surfaces between the extremal and non-extremal black holes.

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arXiv2012

Exact Green's Function and Fermi Surfaces from Conformal Gravity

We study the Dirac equation of a charged massless spinor on the general charged AdS black hole of conformal gravity. The equation can be solved exactly in terms of Heun's functions. We obtain the exact Green's function in the phase space (ω,k). This allows us to obtain Fermi surfaces for both Fermi and non-Fermi liquids. Our analytic results provide a more elegant approach of studying some strongly interacting fermionic systems not only at zero temperature, but also at any finite temperature. At zero temperature, we analyse the motion of the poles in the complex ωplane and obtain the leading order terms of the dispersion relation, expressed as the Laurent expansion of ωin terms of k. We illustrate new distinguishing features arising at the finite temperature. The Green's function with vanishing ωat finite temperature has a fascinating rich structure of spiked maxima in the plane of k and the fermion charge q.

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arXiv2012

BPS States, Refined Indices, and Quiver Invariants

For D=4 BPS state construction, counting, and wall-crossing thereof, quiver quantum mechanics offers two alternative approaches, the Coulomb phase and the Higgs phase, which sometimes produce inequivalent counting. The authors have proposed, in arXiv:1205.6511, two conjectures on the precise relationship between the two, with some supporting evidences. Higgs phase ground states are naturally divided into the Intrinsic Higgs sector, which is insensitive to wall-crossings and thus an invariant of quiver, plus a pulled-back ambient cohomology, conjectured to be an one-to-one image of Coulomb phase ground states. In this note, we show that these conjectures hold for all cyclic quivers with Abelian nodes, and further explore angular momentum and R-charge content of individual states. Along the way, we clarify how the protected spin character of BPS states should be computed in the Higgs phase, and further determine the entire Hodge structure of the Higgs phase cohomology. This shows that, while the Coulomb phase states are classified by angular momentum, the Intrinsic Higgs states are classified by R-symmetry.

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arXiv2012

Quiver Invariants from Intrinsic Higgs States

In study of four-dimensional BPS states, quiver quantum mechanics plays a central role. The Coulomb phases capture the multi-centered nature of such states, and are well understood in the context of wall-crossing. The Higgs phases are given typically by F-term-induced complete intersections in the ambient D-term-induced toric varieties, and the ground states can be far more numerous than the Coulomb phase counterparts. We observe that the Higgs phase BPS states are naturally and geometrically grouped into two parts, with one part given by the pulled-back cohomology from the D-term-induced ambient space. We propose that these pulled-back states are in one-to-one correspondence with the Coulomb phase states. This also leads us to conjecture that the index associated with the rest, intrinsic to the Higgs phase,is a fundamental invariant of quivers, independent of branches. For simple circular quivers, these intrinsic Higgs states belong to the middle cohomology and thus are all angular momentum singlets, supporting the single-center black hole interpretation.

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arXiv2012

Supersymmetric Asymptotic AdS and Lifshitz Solutions in Einstein-Weyl and Conformal Supergravities

We show that there exist supersymmetric Lifshitz vacua in off-shell Einstein-Weyl supergravity, in addition to the BPS AdS_4 vacuum. The Lifshitz exponents are determined by the product of the cosmological constant and the coupling of the Weyl-squared term. We then obtain the equations of the supersymmetric solutions that are asymptotic to the AdS or Lifshitz vacua. We obtain many examples of exact solutions as well as numerical ones. We find examples of extremal AdS black branes whose near-horizon geometry is AdS_2\times T^2. We also find an extremal Lifshitz black hole with z=-2, whose horizon coincides with the curvature singularity. However the asymptotic Lifshitz solutions are in general smooth wormholes. In conformal supergravity, we find intriguing examples of non-extremal "BPS" AdS and Lifshitz black holes whose local Killing spinor is divergent on the horizon. We show that all the supersymmetric asymptotic AdS and Lifshitz solutions have the vanishing Noether charge associated with some scaling symmetry. We also study the integrability condition of the Killing spinor equation and the supersymmetric invariance of the action. Finally we show that the only spherically-symmetric BPS solution is the AdS vacuum.

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arXiv2012

f(R) Gravities, Killing Spinor Equations, "BPS" Domain Walls and Cosmology

We derive the condition on f(R) gravities that admit Killing spinor equations and construct explicit such examples. The Killing spinor equations can be used to reduce the fourth-order differential equations of motion to the first order for both the domain wall and FLRW cosmological solutions. We obtain exact "BPS" domain walls that describe the smooth Randall-Sundrum II, AdS wormholes and the RG flow from IR to UV. We also obtain exact smooth cosmological solutions that describe the evolution from an inflationary starting point with a larger cosmological constant to an ever-expanding universe with a smaller cosmological constant. In addition, We find exact smooth solutions of pre-big bang models, bouncing or crunching universes. An important feature is that the scalar curvature R of all these metrics is varying rather than a constant. Another intriguing feature is that there are two different f(R) gravities that give rise to the same "BPS" solution. We also study linearized f(R) gravities in (A)dS vacua.

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arXiv2012

f(R) Theories of Supergravities and Pseudo-supergravities

We present f(R) theories of ten-dimensional supergravities, including the fermionic sector up to the quadratic order in fermion fields. They are obtained by performing the conformal scaling on the usual supergravities to the f(R) frame in which the dilaton becomes an auxiliary field and can be integrated out. The f(R) frame coincides with that of M-theory, D2-branes or NS-NS 5-branes. We study various BPS p-brane solutions and their near-horizon AdS \times sphere geometries in the context of the f(R) theories. We find that new solutions emerge with global structures that do not exist in the corresponding solutions of the original supergravity description. In lower dimensions, We construct the f(R) theory of N=2, D=5 gauged supergravity with a vector multiplet, and that for the four-dimensional U(1)^4 gauged theory with three vector fields set equal. We find that some previously-known BPS singular "superstars" become wormholes in the f(R) theories. We also construct a large class of f(R) (gauged) pseudo-supergravities. In addition we show that the breathing mode in the Kaluza-Klein reduction of Gauss-Bonnet gravity on S^1 is an auxiliary field and can be integrated out.

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arXiv2011

Gauged Kaluza-Klein AdS Pseudo-supergravity

We obtain the pseudo-supergravity extension of the D-dimensional Kaluza-Klein theory, which is the circle reduction of pure gravity in D+1 dimensions. The fermionic partners are pseudo-gravitino and pseudo-dilatino. The full Lagrangian is invariant under the pseudo-supersymmetric transformation, up to quadratic order in fermion fields. We find that the theory possesses a U(1) global symmetry that can be gauged so that all the fermions are charged under the Kaluza-Klein vector. The gauging process generates a scalar potential that has a maximum, leading to the AdS vacuum. Whist the highest dimension for gauged AdS supergravity is seven, our gauged AdS pseudo-supergravities can exist in arbitrary dimensions.

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arXiv2011

Killing Spinors for the Bosonic String and the Kaluza-Klein Theory with Scalar Potentials

The paper consists mainly of two parts. In the first part, we obtain well-defined Killing spinor equations for the low-energy effective action of the bosonic string with the conformal anomaly term. We show that the conformal anomaly term is the only scalar potential that one can add into the action that is consistent with the Killing spinor equations. In the second part, we demonstrate that the Kaluza-Klein theory can be gauged so that the Killing spinors are charged under the Kaluza-Klein vector. This gauging process generates a scalar potential with a maximum that gives rise to an AdS spacetime. We also construct solutions of these theories.

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arXiv2011

Pseudo-Killing Spinors, Pseudo-supersymmetric p-branes, Bubbling and Less-bubbling AdS Spaces

We consider Einstein gravity coupled to an n-form field strength in D dimensions. Such a theory cannot be supersymmetrized in general, we nevertheless propose a pseudo-Killing spinor equation and show that the AdS X Sphere vacua have the maximum number of pseudo-Killing spinors, and hence are fully pseudo-supersymmetric. We show that extremal p-branes and their intersecting configurations preserve fractions of the pseudo-supersymmetry. We study the integrability condition for general (D,n) and obtain the additional constraints that are required so that the existence of the pseudo-Killing spinors implies the Einstein equations of motion. We obtain new pseudo-supersymmetric bubbling AdS_5 X S^5 spaces that are supported by a non-self-dual 5-form. This demonstrates that non-supersymmegtric conformal field theories may also have bubbling states of arbitrary droplets of free fermions in the phase space. We also obtain an example of less-bubbling AdS geometry in D=8, whose bubbling effects are severely restricted by the additional constraint arising from the integrability condition.

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arXiv2011

Pseudo-Supergravity Extension of the Bosonic String

We construct a ``pseudo-supersymmetric" fermionic extension of the effective action of the bosonic string in arbitrary spacetime dimension D. The theory is invariant under pseudo-supersymmetry transformations up to the quadratic fermion order, which is sufficient in order to be able to derive Killing spinor equations in bosonic backgrounds, and hence to define BPS type solutions determined by a system of first-order equations. The pseudo-supersymmetric theory can be extended by coupling it to a Yang-Mills pseudo-supermultiplet. This also allows us to construct ``α' corrections'' involving quadratic curvature terms. An exponential dilaton potential term, associated with the conformal anomaly for a bosonic string outside its critical dimension, can also be pseudo-supersymmetrised.

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