Hawking and Page on the brane

We show that the Hawking-Page phase transition of a CFT on AdS_{d-1} weakly coupled to gravity has a dual bulk description in terms of a phase transition between a black string and a thermal gas on AdS_{d}. At even lower temperatures the black string develops a Gregory Laflamme instability, which is dual to black hole evaporation in the boundary theory.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure; v2: typos in some formulas corrected; v3: discussion improve

Existence of Majorana fermions for M-branes wrapped in space and time

We show that it is possible to define Majorana (s)pinor fields on M-branes which have been identified under the action of the antipodal map on the adS factor of the throat geometry, or which have been wrapped on two-cycles of arbitrary genus. This is an important consistency check, since it means that one may still take the generators of supertranslations in superspace to transform as Majorana fermions under the adjoint action of $Spin(10,1)$, even though the antipodally identified M2-brane is {\it not} space-orientable. We point out that similar conclusions hold for any p-branes which have the generic (adS)$~{\times}~$(Sphere) throat geometry.Comment: 10 pages REVTe

On the Eleven-Dimensional Origins of Polarized D0-branes

The worldvolume theory of a D0-brane contains a multiplet of fermions which can couple to background spacetime fields. This coupling implies that a D0-brane may possess multipole moments with respect to the various type IIA supergravity fields. Different such polarization states of the D0-brane will thus generate different long-range supergravity fields, and the corresponding semi-classical supergravity solutions will have different geometries. In this paper, we reconsider such solutions from an eleven-dimensional perspective. We thus begin by deriving the ``superpartners'' of the eleven-dimensional graviton. These superpartners are obtained by acting on the purely bosonic solution with broken supersymmetries and, in theory, one can obtain the full BPS supermultiplet of states. When we dimensionally reduce a polarized supergraviton along its direction of motion, we recover a metric which describes a polarized D0-brane. On the other hand, if we compactify along the retarded null direction we obtain the short distance, or ``near-horizon'', geometry of a polarized D0-brane, which is related to finite $N$ Matrix theory. The various dipole moments in this case can only be defined once the eleven-dimensional metric is ``regularized'' and, even then, they are formally infinite. We argue, however, that this is to be expected in such a non-asymptotically flat spacetime. Moreover, we find that the superpartners of the D0-brane, in this r \ra 0 limit, possess neither spin nor D2-brane dipole moments.Comment: 20 pages, LaTeX. More references added, and a correction made to the supercharge. Version to be published in JHE

Supergravity on the Brane

We show that smooth domain wall spacetimes supported by a scalar field separating two anti-de-Sitter like regions admit a single graviton bound state. Our analysis yields a fully non-linear supergravity treatment of the Randall-Sundrum model. Our solutions describe a pp-wave propagating in the domain wall background spacetime. If the latter is BPS, our solutions retain some supersymmetry. Nevertheless, the Kaluza-Klein modes generate ``pp curvature'' singularities in the bulk located where the horizon of AdS would ordinarily be.Comment: 4 pages REVTeX, version to appear in Physical Review Letter

Comment on ``Absence of abelian Higgs hair for extremal black holes''

We examine the claim of Chamblin et. al. that extreme black holes cannot support abelian Higgs hair. We provide evidence that contradicts this claim and discuss reasons for this discrepancy.Comment: 1 page 2 figures, revised titl

Can black holes and naked singularities be detected in accelerators?

We study the conditions for the existence of black holes that can be produced in colliders at TeV-scale if the space-time is higher dimensional. On employing the microcanonical picture, we find that their life-times strongly depend on the details of the model. If the extra dimensions are compact (ADD model), microcanonical deviations from thermality are in general significant near the fundamental TeV mass and tiny black holes decay more slowly than predicted by the canonical expression, but still fast enough to disappear almost instantaneously. However, with one warped extra dimension (RS model), microcanonical corrections are much larger and tiny black holes appear to be (meta)stable. Further, if the total charge is not zero, we argue that naked singularities do not occur provided the electromagnetic field is strictly confined on an infinitely thin brane. However, they might be produced in colliders if the effective thickness of the brane is of the order of the fundamental length scale (~1/TeV).Comment: 6 pages, RevTeX 3, 1 figure and 1 table, important changes and addition

Obstructions to Pin Structures on Kleinian Manifolds

We develop various topological notions on four-manifolds of Kleinian signature $(- - + +)$. In particular, we extend the concept of `Kleinian metric homotopy' to non-orientable manifolds. We then derive the topological obstructions to pin-Klein cobordism, for all of the pin groups. Finally, we discuss various examples and applications which arise from this work.Comment: 20 pages, Latex, 2 xfigures available from Andrew Chamblin at [email protected]

Soccer: is scoring goals a predictable Poissonian process?

The non-scientific event of a soccer match is analysed on a strictly scientific level. The analysis is based on the recently introduced concept of a team fitness (Eur. Phys. J. B 67, 445, 2009) and requires the use of finite-size scaling. A uniquely defined function is derived which quantitatively predicts the expected average outcome of a soccer match in terms of the fitness of both teams. It is checked whether temporary fitness fluctuations of a team hamper the predictability of a soccer match. To a very good approximation scoring goals during a match can be characterized as independent Poissonian processes with pre-determined expectation values. Minor correlations give rise to an increase of the number of draws. The non-Poissonian overall goal distribution is just a consequence of the fitness distribution among different teams. The limits of predictability of soccer matches are quantified. Our model-free classification of the underlying ingredients determining the outcome of soccer matches can be generalized to different types of sports events