122 research outputs found
Chaos in the Gauge/Gravity Correspondence
We study the motion of a string in the background of the Schwarzschild black
hole in AdS_5 by applying the standard arsenal of dynamical systems. Our
description of the phase space includes: the power spectrum, the largest
Lyapunov exponent, Poincare sections and basins of attractions. We find
convincing evidence that the motion is chaotic. We discuss the implications of
some of the quantities associated with chaotic systems for aspects of the
gauge/gravity correspondence. In particular, we suggest some potential
relevance for the information loss paradox.Comment: 29 pages, 11 figure
Generalized scaling function from light-cone gauge AdS_5 x S^5 superstring
We revisit the computation of the 2-loop correction to the energy of a folded
spinning string in AdS_5 with an angular momentum J in S^5 in the scaling limit
log S, J >>1 with J / log S fixed. This correction gives the third term in the
strong-coupling expansion of the generalized scaling function. The computation,
using the AdS light-cone gauge approach developed in our previous paper, is
done by expanding the AdS_5 x S^5 superstring partition function near the
generalized null cusp world surface associated to the spinning string solution.
The result corrects and extends the previous conformal gauge result of
arXiv:0712.2479 and is found to be in complete agreement with the corresponding
terms in the generalized scaling function as obtained from the asymptotic Bethe
ansatz in arXiv:0805.4615 (and also partially from the quantum O(6) model and
the Bethe ansatz data in arXiv:0809.4952). This provides a highly nontrivial
strong coupling comparison of the Bethe ansatz proposal with the quantum AdS_5
x S^5 superstring theory, which goes beyond the leading semiclassical term
effectively controlled by the underlying algebraic curve. The 2-loop
computation we perform involves all the structures in the AdS light-cone gauge
superstring action of hep-th/0009171 and thus tests its ultraviolet finiteness
and, through the agreement with the Bethe ansatz, its quantum integrability. We
do most of the computations for a generalized spinning string solution or the
corresponding null cusp surface that involves both the orbital momentum and the
winding in a large circle of S^5.Comment: 50 pages, late
Search for Axionlike and Scalar Particles with the NA64 Experiment
We carried out a model-independent search for light scalar (s) and
pseudoscalar axionlike (a) particles that couple to two photons by using the
high-energy CERN SPS H4 electron beam. The new particles, if they exist, could
be produced through the Primakoff effect in interactions of hard bremsstrahlung
photons generated by 100 GeV electrons in the NA64 active dump with virtual
photons provided by the nuclei of the dump. The a(s) would penetrate the
downstream HCAL module, serving as shielding, and would be observed either
through their decay in the rest of the HCAL detector or
as events with large missing energy if the a(s) decays downstream of the HCAL.
This method allows for the probing the a(s) parameter space, including those
from generic axion models, inaccessible to previous experiments. No evidence of
such processes has been found from the analysis of the data corresponding to
electrons on target allowing to set new limits on the
-coupling strength for a(s) masses below 55 MeV.Comment: This publication is dedicated to the memory of our colleague Danila
Tlisov. 7 pages, 5 figures, revised version accepted for publication in Phys.
Rev. Let
Holographic Brownian Motion in Magnetic Environments
Using the gauge/gravity correspondence, we study the dynamics of a heavy
quark in two strongly-coupled systems at finite temperature: Super-Yang-Mills
in the presence of a magnetic field and non-commutative Super-Yang-Mills. In
the former, our results agree qualitatively with the expected behavior from
weakly-coupled theories. In the latter, we propose a Langevin equation that
accounts for the effects of non-commutativity and we find new interesting
features. The equation resembles the structure of Brownian motion in the
presence of a magnetic field and implies that the fluctuations along
non-commutative directions are correlated. Moreover, our results show that the
viscosity is smaller than the commutative case and that the diffusion
properties of the quark are unaffected by non-commutativity. Finally, we
compute the random force autocorrelator and verify that the
fluctuation-dissipation theorem holds in the presence of non-commutativity.Comment: 34 pages. v2: typos corrected. v3: title and abstract slightly
modified in order to better reflect the contents of the paper; footnote 3 and
one reference were also added; version accepted for publication in JHE
Quantum Fluctuations and the Unruh Effect in Strongly-Coupled Conformal Field Theories
Through the AdS/CFT correspondence, we study a uniformly accelerated quark in
the vacuum of strongly-coupled conformal field theories in various dimensions,
and determine the resulting stochastic fluctuations of the quark trajectory.
From the perspective of an inertial observer, these are quantum fluctuations
induced by the gluonic radiation emitted by the accelerated quark. From the
point of view of the quark itself, they originate from the thermal medium
predicted by the Unruh effect. We scrutinize the relation between these two
descriptions in the gravity side of the correspondence, and show in particular
that upon transforming the conformal field theory from Rindler space to the
open Einstein universe, the acceleration horizon disappears from the boundary
theory but is preserved in the bulk. This transformation allows us to directly
connect our calculation of radiation-induced fluctuations in vacuum with the
analysis by de Boer et al. of the Brownian motion of a quark that is on average
static within a thermal medium. Combining this same bulk transformation with
previous results of Emparan, we are also able to compute the stress-energy
tensor of the Unruh thermal medium.Comment: 1+31 pages; v2: reference adde
Event-horizon-scale structure in the supermassive black hole candidate at the Galactic Centre
The cores of most galaxies are thought to harbour supermassive black holes,
which power galactic nuclei by converting the gravitational energy of accreting
matter into radiation (ref 1). Sagittarius A*, the compact source of radio,
infrared and X-ray emission at the centre of the Milky Way, is the closest
example of this phenomenon, with an estimated black hole mass that is 4 million
times that of the Sun (refs. 2,3). A long-standing astronomical goal is to
resolve structures in the innermost accretion flow surrounding Sgr A* where
strong gravitational fields will distort the appearance of radiation emitted
near the black hole. Radio observations at wavelengths of 3.5 mm and 7 mm have
detected intrinsic structure in Sgr A*, but the spatial resolution of
observations at these wavelengths is limited by interstellar scattering (refs.
4-7). Here we report observations at a wavelength of 1.3 mm that set a size of
37 (+16, -10; 3-sigma) microarcseconds on the intrinsic diameter of Sgr A*.
This is less than the expected apparent size of the event horizon of the
presumed black hole, suggesting that the bulk of SgrA* emission may not be not
centred on the black hole, but arises in the surrounding accretion flow.Comment: 12 pages including 2 figure
f(R) theories
Over the past decade, f(R) theories have been extensively studied as one of
the simplest modifications to General Relativity. In this article we review
various applications of f(R) theories to cosmology and gravity - such as
inflation, dark energy, local gravity constraints, cosmological perturbations,
and spherically symmetric solutions in weak and strong gravitational
backgrounds. We present a number of ways to distinguish those theories from
General Relativity observationally and experimentally. We also discuss the
extension to other modified gravity theories such as Brans-Dicke theory and
Gauss-Bonnet gravity, and address models that can satisfy both cosmological and
local gravity constraints.Comment: 156 pages, 14 figures, Invited review article in Living Reviews in
Relativity, Published version, Comments are welcom
Improved exclusion limit for light dark matter from e+e- annihilation in NA64
The current most stringent constraints for the existence of sub-GeV dark matter coupling to Standard Model via a massive vector boson A′ were set by the NA64 experiment for the mass region mA′≲250 MeV, by analyzing data from the interaction of 2.84×1011 100-GeV electrons with an active thick target and searching for missing-energy events. In this work, by including A′ production via secondary positron annihilation with atomic electrons, we extend these limits in the 200-300 MeV region by almost an order of magnitude, touching for the first time the dark matter relic density constrained parameter combinations. Our new results demonstrate the power of the resonant annihilation process in missing energy dark-matter searches, paving the road to future dedicated e+ beam efforts
Search for Axionlike and Scalar Particles with the NA64 Experiment
We carried out a model-independent search for light scalar (s) and pseudoscalar axionlike (a) particles that couple to two photons by using the high-energy CERN SPS H4 electron beam. The new particles, if they exist, could be produced through the Primakoff effect in interactions of hard bremsstrahlung photons generated by 100 GeV electrons in the NA64 active dump with virtual photons provided by the nuclei of the dump. The a(s) would penetrate the downstream HCAL module, serving as a shield, and would be observed either through their a(s)→γγ decay in the rest of the HCAL detector, or as events with a large missing energy if the a(s) decays downstream of the HCAL. This method allows for the probing of the a(s) parameter space, including those from generic axion models, inaccessible to previous experiments. No evidence of such processes has been found from the analysis of the data corresponding to 2.84×10^{11} electrons on target, allowing us to set new limits on the a(s)γγ-coupling strength for a(s) masses below 55 MeV
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