Electromagnetic vacuum densities induced by a cosmic string

We investigate the influence of a generalized cosmic string in (D+1) -dimensional spacetime on the local characteristics of the electromagnetic vacuum. Two special cases are considered with flat and locally de Sitter background geometries. The topological contributions in the vacuum expectation values (VEVs) of the squared electric and magnetic fields are explicitly separated. Depending on the number of spatial dimensions and on the planar angle deficit induced by the cosmic string, these contributions can be either negative or positive. In the case of the flat bulk, the VEV of the energy-momentum tensor is evaluated as well. For the locally de Sitter bulk, the influence of the background gravitational field essentially changes the behavior of the vacuum densities at distances from the string larger than the curvature radius of the spacetime.Comment: 19 pages, 5 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1706.0074

Quantum corrections to dynamical holographic thermalization: entanglement entropy and other non-local observables

We investigate the thermalization time scale in the planar limit of the SU(N) N=4 SYM plasma at strong yet finite 't Hooft coupling by considering its supergravity dual description, including the full O(alpha'^3) type IIB string theory corrections. We also discuss on the effects of the leading non-planar corrections. We use extended geometric probes in the bulk which are dual to different non-local observables in the N=4 SYM theory. This is carried out within the framework of dynamical holographic thermalization.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figures. V2: References added, 1 figure added, 1 figure corrected, enlarged discussions about extended probes, typos corrected. Published versio

Entanglement and out-of-equilibrium dynamics in holographic models of de Sitter QFTs

In this paper we study various aspects of entanglement entropy in strongly-coupled de Sitter quantum field theories in various dimensions. We find gravity solutions that are dual to field theories in a fixed de Sitter background, both in equilibrium and out-of-equilibrium configurations. The latter corresponds to the Vaidya generalization of the AdS black hole solutions with hyperbolic topology. We compute analytically the entanglement entropy of spherical regions and show that there is a transition when the sphere is as big as the horizon. We also explore thermalization in time-dependent situations in which the system evolves from a non-equilibrium state to the Bunch-Davies state. We find that the saturation time is equal to the light-crossing time of the sphere. This behavior is faster than random walk and suggests the existence of free light-like degrees of freedom.Comment: 39 pages, 11 figures; minor changes, conclusions unchange

Kinematic reduction of reaction-diffusion fronts with multiplicative noise: Derivation of stochastic sharp-interface equations

We study the dynamics of generic reaction-diffusion fronts, including pulses and chemical waves, in the presence of multiplicative noise. We discuss the connection between the reaction-diffusion Langevin-like field equations and the kinematic (eikonal) description in terms of a stochastic moving-boundary or sharp-interface approximation. We find that the effective noise is additive and we relate its strength to the noise parameters in the original field equations, to first order in noise strength, but including a partial resummation to all orders which captures the singular dependence on the microscopic cutoff associated to the spatial correlation of the noise. This dependence is essential for a quantitative and qualitative understanding of fluctuating fronts, affecting both scaling properties and nonuniversal quantities. Our results predict phenomena such as the shift of the transition point between the pushed and pulled regimes of front propagation, in terms of the noise parameters, and the corresponding transition to a non-KPZ universality class. We assess the quantitative validity of the results in several examples including equilibrium fluctuations, kinetic roughening, and the noise-induced pushed-pulled transition, which is predicted and observed for the first time. The analytical predictions are successfully tested against rigorous results and show excellent agreement with numerical simulations of reaction-diffusion field equations with multiplicative noise.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figure

A Bound on Holographic Entanglement Entropy from Inverse Mean Curvature Flow

Entanglement entropies are notoriously difficult to compute. Large-N strongly-coupled holographic CFTs are an important exception, where the AdS/CFT dictionary gives the entanglement entropy of a CFT region in terms of the area of an extremal bulk surface anchored to the AdS boundary. Using this prescription, we show -- for quite general states of (2+1)-dimensional such CFTs -- that the renormalized entanglement entropy of any region of the CFT is bounded from above by a weighted local energy density. The key ingredient in this construction is the inverse mean curvature (IMC) flow, which we suitably generalize to flows of surfaces anchored to the AdS boundary. Our bound can then be thought of as a "subregion" Penrose inequality in asymptotically locally AdS spacetimes, similar to the Penrose inequalities obtained from IMC flows in asymptotically flat spacetimes. Combining the result with positivity of relative entropy, we argue that our bound is valid perturbatively in 1/N, and conjecture that a restricted version of it holds in any CFT.Comment: 33+7 pages, 7 figures. v2: addressed referee comment

Generation of dynamic structures in nonequilibrium reactive bilayers

We present a nonequlibrium approach for the study of a flexible bilayer whose two components induce distinct curvatures. In turn, the two components are interconverted by an externally promoted reaction. Phase separation of the two species in the surface results in the growth of domains characterized by different local composition and curvature modulations. This domain growth is limited by the effective mixing due to the interconversion reaction, leading to a finite characteristic domain size. In addition to these effects, first introduced in our earlier work [Phys. Rev. E {\bf 71}, 051906 (2005)], the important new feature is the assumption that the reactive process actively affects the local curvature of the bilayer. Specifically, we suggest that a force energetically activated by external sources causes a modification of the shape of the membrane at the reaction site. Our results show the appearance of a rich and robust dynamical phenomenology that includes the generation of traveling and/or oscillatory patterns. Linear stability analysis, amplitude equations and numerical simulations of the model kinetic equations confirm the occurrence of these spatiotemporal behaviors in nonequilibrium reactive bilayers.Comment: To appear in Phys. Rev.

Cauchy Horizons, Thermodynamics and Closed Time-like Curves in Planar Supersymmetric Space-times

We study geodesically complete, singularity free space-times induced by supersymmetric planar domain walls interpolating between Minkowski and anti-de Sitter ($AdS_4$) vacua. A geodesically complete space-time without closed time-like curves includes an infinite number of semi-infinite Minkowski space-times, separated from each other by a region of $AdS_4$ space-time. These space-times are closely related to the extreme Reissner Nordstr\" om (RN) black hole, exhibiting Cauchy horizons with zero Hawking temperature, but in contrast to the RN black hole there is no entropy. Another geodesically complete extension with closed time-like curves involves space-times connecting a finite number of semi-infinite Minkowski space-times.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figure appended, phyzz

Stability of Charged Global AdS4_4 Spacetimes

We study linear and nonlinear stability of asymptotically AdS$_4$ solutions in Einstein-Maxwell-scalar theory. After summarizing the set of static solutions we first examine thermodynamical stability in the grand canonical ensemble and the phase transitions that occur among them. In the second part of the paper we focus on nonlinear stability in the microcanonical ensemble by evolving radial perturbations numerically. We find hints of an instability corner for vanishingly small perturbations of the same kind as the ones present in the uncharged case. Collapses are avoided, instead, if the charge and mass of the perturbations come to close the line of solitons. Finally we examine the soliton solutions. The linear spectrum of normal modes is not resonant and instability turns on at extrema of the mass curve. Linear stability extends to nonlinear stability up to some threshold for the amplitude of the perturbation. Beyond that, the soliton is destroyed and collapses to a hairy black hole. The relative width of this stability band scales down with the charge Q, and does not survive the blow up limit to a planar geometry.Comment: 43 pg, 22 fig. Published version. Appendix adde

On the non-local geometry of turbulence

A multi-scale methodology for the study of the non-local geometry of eddy structures in turbulence is developed. Starting from a given three-dimensional field, this consists of three main steps: extraction, characterization and classification of structures. The extraction step is done in two stages. First, a multi-scale decomposition based on the curvelet transform is applied to the full three-dimensional field, resulting in a finite set of component three-dimensional fields, one per scale. Second, by iso-contouring each component field at one or more iso-contour levels, a set of closed iso-surfaces is obtained that represents the structures at that scale. The characterization stage is based on the joint probability density function (p.d.f.), in terms of area coverage on each individual iso-surface, of two differential-geometry properties, the shape index and curvedness, plus the stretching parameter, a dimensionless global invariant of the surface. Taken together, this defines the geometrical signature of the iso-surface. The classification step is based on the construction of a finite set of parameters, obtained from algebraic functions of moments of the joint p.d.f. of each structure, that specify its location as a point in a multi-dimensional ‘feature space’. At each scale the set of points in feature space represents all structures at that scale, for the specified iso-contour value. This then allows the application, to the set, of clustering techniques that search for groups of structures with a common geometry. Results are presented of a first application of this technique to a passive scalar field obtained from 5123 direct numerical simulation of scalar mixing by forced, isotropic turbulence (Reλ = 265). These show transition, with decreasing scale, from blob-like structures in the larger scales to blob- and tube-like structures with small or moderate stretching in the inertial range of scales, and then toward tube and, predominantly, sheet-like structures with high level of stretching in the dissipation range of scales. Implications of these results for the dynamical behaviour of passive scalar stirring and mixing by turbulence are discussed

Resistivity phase diagram of cuprates revisited

The phase diagram of the cuprate superconductors has posed a formidable scientific challenge for more than three decades. This challenge is perhaps best exemplified by the need to understand the normal-state charge transport as the system evolves from Mott insulator to Fermi-liquid metal with doping. Here we report a detailed analysis of the temperature (T) and doping (p) dependence of the planar resistivity of simple-tetragonal HgBa$_2$CuO$_{4+\delta}$ (Hg1201), the single-CuO$_2$-layer cuprate with the highest optimal $T_c$. The data allow us to test a recently proposed phenomenological model for the cuprate phase diagram that combines a universal transport scattering rate with spatially inhomogeneous (de)localization of the Mott-localized hole. We find that the model provides an excellent description of the data. We then extend this analysis to prior transport results for several other cuprates, including the Hall number in the overdoped part of the phase diagram, and find little compound-to-compound variation in (de)localization gap scale. The results point to a robust, universal structural origin of the inherent gap inhomogeneity that is unrelated to doping-related disorder. They are inconsistent with the notion that much of the phase diagram is controlled by a quantum critical point, and instead indicate that the unusual electronic properties exhibited by the cuprates are fundamentally related to strong nonlinearities associated with subtle nanoscale inhomogeneity.Comment: 22 pages, 5 figure