TY - JOUR
T1 - Metastability and instability in holographic gauge theories
AU - Kleban, Matthew
AU - Lawrence, Albion
AU - Roberts, Matthew M.
AU - Storace, Stefano
PY - 2014/6
Y1 - 2014/6
N2 - We review and extend previous results regarding the stability and thermodynamics of Anti-de Sitter (AdS) spacetime at finite temperature. Using a combination of analytic and numerical techniques, we compute the energy, temperature, and entropy of perfect fluid stars in asymptotically AdS spacetimes. We find that at sufficiently high temperature (in the canonical ensemble) or energy (in the microcanonical ensemble) these configurations develop dynamical instabilities, which presumably lead to the formation of a black hole. We extend our analysis to the case of AdS × S compactifications stabilized by flux (such as those that arise in supergravity and string theory), and find that the inclusion of the sphere does not substantially alter these results. We then map out the phase structure of these theories in the canonical and microcanonical ensembles, paying attention to inequivalence of these ensembles for global anti-de Sitter space. With a certain scaling limit, the critical temperature can be parametrically lower than the string temperature, so that supergravity is a good description at the instability point. We comment on the implications of this for the unitarity of black holes.
AB - We review and extend previous results regarding the stability and thermodynamics of Anti-de Sitter (AdS) spacetime at finite temperature. Using a combination of analytic and numerical techniques, we compute the energy, temperature, and entropy of perfect fluid stars in asymptotically AdS spacetimes. We find that at sufficiently high temperature (in the canonical ensemble) or energy (in the microcanonical ensemble) these configurations develop dynamical instabilities, which presumably lead to the formation of a black hole. We extend our analysis to the case of AdS × S compactifications stabilized by flux (such as those that arise in supergravity and string theory), and find that the inclusion of the sphere does not substantially alter these results. We then map out the phase structure of these theories in the canonical and microcanonical ensembles, paying attention to inequivalence of these ensembles for global anti-de Sitter space. With a certain scaling limit, the critical temperature can be parametrically lower than the string temperature, so that supergravity is a good description at the instability point. We comment on the implications of this for the unitarity of black holes.
KW - AdS-CFT Correspondence
KW - Classical Theories of Gravity
KW - Field Theories in Higher Dimensions
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U2 - 10.1007/JHEP06(2014)152
DO - 10.1007/JHEP06(2014)152
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:84904350187
SN - 1126-6708
VL - 2014
JO - Journal of High Energy Physics
JF - Journal of High Energy Physics
IS - 6
M1 - 152
ER -