Black Holes in Quasi-topological Gravity

We construct a new gravitational action which includes cubic curvature interactions and which provides a useful toy model for the holographic study of a three parameter family of four- and higher-dimensional CFT's. We also investigate the black hole solutions of this new gravity theory. Further we examine the equations of motion of quasi-topological gravity. While the full equations in a general background are fourth-order in derivatives, we show that the linearized equations describing gravitons propagating in the AdS vacua match precisely the second-order equations of Einstein gravity.Comment: 33 pages, 4 figures; two references adde

Holographic current correlators at finite coupling and scattering off a supersymmetric plasma

By studying the effect of the order(\alpha'^3) string theory corrections to type IIB supergravity, including those corrections involving the Ramond-Ramond five-form field strength, we obtain the corrected equations of motion of an Abelian perturbation of the AdS_5-Schwarzschild black hole. We then use the gauge theory/string theory duality to examine the coupling-constant dependence of vector current correlators associated to a gauged U(1) sub-group of the global R-symmetry group of strongly-coupled N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory at finite temperature. The corrections induce a set of higher-derivative operators for the U(1) gauge field, but their effect is highly suppressed. We thus find that the order(\alpha'^3) corrections affect the vector correlators only indirectly, through the corrected metric. We apply our results to investigate scattering off a supersymmetric Yang-Mills plasma at low and high energy. In the latter regime, where Deep Inelastic Scattering is expected to occur, we find an enhancement of the plasma structure functions in comparison with the infinite 't Hooft coupling result.Comment: 38 pages, 6 figures, minor clarifications added, typos corrected, references adde

Viscosity Bound and Causality in Superfluid Plasma

It was argued by Brigante et.al that the lower bound on the ratio of the shear viscosity to the entropy density in strongly coupled plasma is translated into microcausality violation in the dual gravitational description. Since transport properties of the system characterize its infrared dynamics, while the causality of the theory is determined by its ultraviolet behavior, the viscosity bound/microcausality link should not be applicable to theories that undergo low temperature phase transitions. We present an explicit model of AdS/CFT correspondence that confirms this fact.Comment: 27 pages, 5 figures. References added, typos fixe

Holographic GB gravity in arbitrary dimensions

We study the properties of the holographic CFT dual to Gauss-Bonnet gravity in general $D \ge 5$ dimensions. We establish the AdS/CFT dictionary and in particular relate the couplings of the gravitational theory to the universal couplings arising in correlators of the stress tensor of the dual CFT. This allows us to examine constraints on the gravitational couplings by demanding consistency of the CFT. In particular, one can demand positive energy fluxes in scattering processes or the causal propagation of fluctuations. We also examine the holographic hydrodynamics, commenting on the shear viscosity as well as the relaxation time. The latter allows us to consider causality constraints arising from the second-order truncated theory of hydrodynamics.Comment: 48 pages, 9 figures. v2: New discussion on free fields in subsection 3.3 and new appendix B on conformal tensor fields. Added comments on the relation between the central charge appearing in the two-point function and the "central charge" characterizing the entropy density in the discussion. References adde

On the universality of thermodynamics and η/s ratio for the charged Lovelock black branes

Abstract: We investigate general features of charged Lovelock black branes by giving a detailed description of geometrical, thermodynamic and holographic properties of charged Gauss-Bonnet (GB) black branes in five dimensions. We show that when expressed in terms of effective physical parameters, the thermodynamic behaviour of charged GB black branes is completely indistinguishable from that of charged Einstein black branes. Moreover, the extremal, near-horizon limit of the two classes of branes is exactly the same as they allow for the same AdS2 × R3, near-horizon, exact solution. This implies that, although in the UV the associated dual QFTs are different, they flow in the IR to the same fixed point. The calculation of the shear viscosity to entropy ratio η/s confirms these results. Despite the GB dual plasma has in general a non-universal temperature-dependent η/s, it flows monotonically to the universal value 1/4π in the IR. For negative (positive) GB coupling constant, η/s is an increasing (decreasing) function of the temperature and the flow respects (violates) the KSS bound

Antiviral Activity and Increased Host Defense against Influenza Infection Elicited by the Human Cathelicidin LL-37

The extensive world-wide morbidity and mortality caused by influenza A viruses highlights the need for new insights into the host immune response and novel treatment approaches. Cationic Host Defense Peptides (CHDP, also known as antimicrobial peptides), which include cathelicidins and defensins, are key components of the innate immune system that are upregulated during infection and inflammation. Cathelicidins have immunomodulatory and anti-viral effects, but their impact on influenza virus infection has not been previously assessed. We therefore evaluated the effect of cathelicidin peptides on disease caused by influenza A virus in mice. The human cathelicidin, LL-37, and the murine cathelicidin, mCRAMP, demonstrated significant anti-viral activity in vivo, reducing disease severity and viral replication in infected mice to a similar extent as the well-characterized influenza virus-specific antiviral drug zanamivir. In vitro and in vivo experiments suggested that the peptides may act directly on the influenza virion rather than via receptor-based mechanisms. Influenza virus-infected mice treated with LL-37 had lower concentrations of pro-inflammatory cytokines in the lung than did infected animals that had not been treated with cathelicidin peptides. These data suggest that treatment of influenza-infected individuals with cathelicidin-derived therapeutics, or modulation of endogenous cathelicidin production may provide significant protection against disease