String Thermodynamics in D-Brane Backgrounds

We discuss the thermal properties of string gases propagating in various D-brane backgrounds in the weak-coupling limit, and at temperatures close to the Hagedorn temperature. We determine, in the canonical ensemble, whether the Hagedorn temperature is limiting or non-limiting. This depends on the dimensionality of the D-brane, and the size of the compact dimensions. We find that in many cases the non-limiting behaviour manifest in the canonical ensemble is modified to a limiting behaviour in the microcanonical ensemble and show that, when there are different systems in thermal contact, the energy flows into open strings on the `limiting' D-branes of largest dimensionality. Such energy densities may eventually exceed the D-brane intrinsic tension. We discuss possible implications of this for the survival of Dp-branes with large values of p in an early cosmological Hagedorn regime. We also discuss the general phase diagram of the interacting theory, as implied by the holographic and black-hole/string correspondence principles.Comment: 50 pages, LaTeX, 4 eps figures. Added discussion of random walk picture. Corrected technical error in the treatment of ND strings (notice some formulas are rewritten). Conclusions unchange

On Stringy Thresholds in SYM/AdS Thermodynamics

We consider aspects of the role of stringy scales and Hagedorn temperatures in the correspondence between various field theories and AdS-type spaces. The boundary theory is set on a toroidal world-volume to enable small scales to appear in the supergravity backgrounds also for low field-theory temperatures. We find that thermodynamical considerations tend to favour background manifolds with no string-size characteristic scales. The gravitational dynamics censors the reliable exposure of Hagedorn physics on the supergravity side, and the system does not allow the study of the Hagedorn scale by low-temperature field theories. These results are obtained following some heuristic assumptions on the character of stringy modifications to the gravitational backgrounds. A rich phenomenology appears on the supergravity side, with different string backgrounds dominating in different regions, which should have field-theoretic consequences. Six-dimensional world volumes turn out to be borderline cases from several points of view. For lower dimensional world-volumes, a fully holographic behaviour is exhibited to order 1/N^2, and open strings in their presence are found to have a thermodynamical Hagedorn behaviour similar to that of closed strings in flat space.Comment: 49 pages, harvmac, seven Postscript figure

Emission rates, the Correspondence Principle and the Information Paradox

When we vary the moduli of a compactification it may become entropically favourable at some point for a state of branes and strings to rearrange itself into a new configuration. We observe that for the elementary string with two large charges such a rearrangement happens at the `correspondence point' where the string becomes a black hole. For smaller couplings it is entropically favourable for the excitations to be vibrations of the string, while for larger couplings the favoured excitations are pairs of solitonic 5-branes attached to the string; this helps resolve some recently noted difficulties with matching emission properties of the string to emission properties of the black hole. We also examine the change of state when a black hole is placed in a spacetime with an additional compact direction, and the size of this direction is varied. These studies suggest a mechanism that might help resolve the information paradox.Comment: harvmac, 28 page