Modeling microscopic swimmers at low Reynolds number

We employ three numerical methods to explore the motion of low Reynolds number swimmers, modeling the hydrodynamic interactions by means of the Oseen tensor approximation, lattice Boltzmann simulations and multiparticle collision dynamics. By applying the methods to a three bead linear swimmer, for which exact results are known, we are able to compare and assess the effectiveness of the different approaches. We then propose a new class of low Reynolds number swimmers, generalized three bead swimmers that can change both the length of their arms and the angle between them. Hence we suggest a design for a microstructure capable of moving in three dimensions. We discuss multiple bead, linear microstructures and show that they are highly efficient swimmers. We then turn to consider the swimming motion of elastic filaments. Using multiparticle collision dynamics we show that a driven filament behaves in a qualitatively similar way to the micron-scale swimming device recently demonstrated by Dreyfus et al.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figure

Hidden Conformal Symmetry of Extremal Kerr-Bolt Spacetimes

We show that extremal Kerr-Bolt spacetimes have a hidden conformal symmetry. In this regard, we consider the wave equation of a massless scalar field propagating in extremal Kerr-Bolt spacetimes and find in the "near region", the wave equation in extremal limit can be written in terms of the $SL(2,R)$ quadratic Casimir. Moreover, we obtain the microscopic entropy of the extremal Kerr-Bolt spacetimes also we calculate the correlation function of a near-region scalar field and find perfect agreement with the dual 2D CFT.Comment: 13 page

Incompressible Fluids of the de Sitter Horizon and Beyond

There are (at least) two surfaces of particular interest in eternal de Sitter space. One is the timelike hypersurface constituting the lab wall of a static patch observer and the other is the future boundary of global de Sitter space. We study both linear and non-linear deformations of four-dimensional de Sitter space which obey the Einstein equation. Our deformations leave the induced conformal metric and trace of the extrinsic curvature unchanged for a fixed hypersurface. This hypersurface is either timelike within the static patch or spacelike in the future diamond. We require the deformations to be regular at the future horizon of the static patch observer. For linearized perturbations in the future diamond, this corresponds to imposing incoming flux solely from the future horizon of a single static patch observer. When the slices are arbitrarily close to the cosmological horizon, the finite deformations are characterized by solutions to the incompressible Navier-Stokes equation for both spacelike and timelike hypersurfaces. We then study, at the level of linearized gravity, the change in the discrete dispersion relation as we push the timelike hypersurface toward the worldline of the static patch. Finally, we study the spectrum of linearized solutions as the spacelike slices are pushed to future infinity and relate our calculations to analogous ones in the context of massless topological black holes in AdS$_4$.Comment: 27 pages, 8 figure

Hidden and Generalized Conformal Symmetry of Kerr-Sen Spacetimes

It is recently conjectured that generic non-extremal Kerr black hole could be holographically dual to a hidden conformal field theory in two dimensions. Moreover, it is known that there are two CFT duals (pictures) to describe the charged rotating black holes which correspond to angular momentum $J$ and electric charge $Q$ of the black hole. Furthermore these two pictures can be incorporated by the CFT duals (general picture) that are generated by $SL(2,\mathbb{Z})$ modular group. The general conformal structure can be revealed by looking at charged scalar wave equation in some appropriate values of frequency and charge. In this regard, we consider the wave equation of a charged massless scalar field in background of Kerr-Sen black hole and show in the "near region", the wave equation can be reproduced by the Casimir operator of a local $SL(2,\mathbb{R})_L \times SL(2,\mathbb{R})_R$ hidden conformal symmetry. We can find the exact agreement between macroscopic and microscopic physical quantities like entropy and absorption cross section of scalars for Kerr-Sen black hole. We then find an extension of vector fields that in turn yields an extended local family of $SL(2,\mathbb{R})_L \times SL(2,\mathbb{R})_R$ hidden conformal symmetries, parameterized by one parameter. For some special values of the parameter, we find a copy of $SL(2,\mathbb{R})$ hidden conformal algebra for the charged Gibbons-Maeda-Garfinkle-Horowitz-Strominger black hole in the strong deflection limit.Comment: 16 pages, new material and results added, extensive improvements in interpretation of results, references adde

Membrane Paradigm and Horizon Thermodynamics in Lanczos-Lovelock gravity

We study the membrane paradigm for horizons in Lanczos-Lovelock models of gravity in arbitrary D dimensions and find compact expressions for the pressure p and viscosity coefficients \eta and \zeta of the membrane fluid. We show that the membrane pressure is intimately connected with the Noether charge entropy S_Wald of the horizon when we consider a specific m-th order Lanczos-Lovelock model, through the relation pA/T=(D-2m)/(D-2)S_Wald, where T is the temperature and A is the area of the horizon. Similarly, the viscosity coefficients are expressible in terms of entropy and quasi-local energy associated with the horizons. The bulk and shear viscosity coefficients are found to obey the relation \zeta=-2(D-3)/(D-2)\eta.Comment: v1: 13 pages, no figure. (v2): refs added, typos corrected, new subsection added on the ratio \eta/s. (v3): some clarification added, typos corrected, to appear in JHE

Yet Another Realization of Kerr/CFT Correspondence

The correspondence between the Kerr black hole and a boundary CFT has been conjectured recently. The conjecture has been proposed first only for the half of the CFT, namely for left movers. For right movers, the correspondence has been also found out through the suitable asymptotic boundary condition. However, the boundary conditions for these two studies are exclusive to each other. The boundary condition for left movers does not allow the symmetry of right movers, and vice versa. We propose new boundary condition which allows both of left and right movers.Comment: 6 pages, references adde

Holographic Dual of Linear Dilaton Black Hole in Einstein-Maxwell-Dilaton-Axion Gravity

Motivated by the recently proposed Kerr/CFT correspondence, we investigate the holographic dual of the extremal and non-extremal rotating linear dilaton black hole in Einstein-Maxwell-Dilaton-Axion Gravity. For the case of extremal black hole, by imposing the appropriate boundary condition at spatial infinity of the near horizon extremal geometry, the Virasoro algebra of conserved charges associated with the asymptotic symmetry group is obtained. It is shown that the microscopic entropy of the dual conformal field given by Cardy formula exactly agrees with Bekenstein-Hawking entropy of extremal black hole. Then, by rewriting the wave equation of massless scalar field with sufficient low energy as the SL(2, R)$_L$$\times$SL(2, R)$_R$ Casimir operator, we find the hidden conformal symmetry of the non-extremal linear dilaton black hole, which implies that the non-extremal rotating linear dilaton black hole is holographically dual to a two dimensional conformal field theory with the non-zero left and right temperatures. Furthermore, it is shown that the entropy of non-extremal black hole can be reproduced by using Cardy formula.Comment: 15 pages, no figure, published versio

Deconstructing holographic liquids

We argue that there exist simple effective field theories describing the long-distance dynamics of holographic liquids. The degrees of freedom responsible for the transport of charge and energy-momentum are Goldstone modes. These modes are coupled to a strongly coupled infrared sector through emergent gauge and gravitational fields. The IR degrees of freedom are described holographically by the near-horizon part of the metric, while the Goldstone bosons are described by a field-theoretical Lagrangian. In the cases where the holographic dual involves a black hole, this picture allows for a direct connection between the holographic prescription where currents live on the boundary, and the membrane paradigm where currents live on the horizon. The zero-temperature sound mode in the D3-D7 system is also re-analyzed and re-interpreted within this formalism.Comment: 21 pages, 2 figure

Hidden Conformal Symmetry of the Reissner-Nordstr{\o}m Black Holes

Motivated by recent progresses in the holographic descriptions of the Kerr and Reissner-Nordstr{\o}m (RN) black holes, we explore the hidden conformal symmetry of nonextremal uplifted 5D RN black hole by studying the near horizon wave equation of a massless scalar field propagating in this background. Similar to the Kerr black hole case, this hidden symmetry is broken by the periodicity of the associated angle coordinate in the background geometry, but the results somehow testify the dual CFT description of the nonextremal RN black holes. The duality is further supported by matching of the entropies and absorption cross sections calculated from both CFT and gravity sides.Comment: 14 pages, no figur