Tension of Confining Strings at Low Temperature

In the low temperature confining phase of QCD or QCD-like theories it is challenging to capture the temperature dependence of observables through AdS/CFT. Using the blackfold approach we compute the quark-antiquark linear static potential in the low temperature confining phase, taking into account the thermal excitations of the string. We find the explicit temperature dependence of the string tension and notice that, as naturally expected, tension decreases as temperature increases. We have also generalized the blackfold approach for the computation of the Wilson loops, making it directly applicable to a large class of backgrounds.Comment: 22 pages, 2 figure

Heating up branes in gauged supergravity

In this note, we explore the solution space of non-extremal black objects in $4D$ and $5D$ ${\cal N}=2$ gauged supergravity in the presence of fluxes. We present first order rewritings of the $4D$ action for a classes of non-extremal dyonic and electric solutions with electric flux backgrounds. Additionally, we obtain the non-extremal version of the Nernst brane in $AdS_5$ using a simple deformation. Finally, we develop a new technique to deform extremal black solutions in $4D$ to non-extremal solutions by an analysis of the symmetries of the equations of motion.Comment: Minor typographic correction

Generalized Hot Attractors

Non-extremal black holes are endowed with geometric invariants related to their horizon areas. We extend earlier work on hot attractor black holes to higher dimensions and add a scalar potential. In addition to the event and Cauchy horizons, when we complexify the radial coordinate, non-extremal black holes will generically have other horizons as well. We prove that the product of all of the horizon areas is independent of variations of the asymptotic moduli further generalizing the attractor mechanism for extremal black holes. In the presence of a scalar potential, as typically appears in gauged supergravity, we find that the product of horizon areas is not necessarily the geometric mean of the extremal area, however. We outline the derivation of horizon invariants for stationary backgrounds.Comment: 39 pages, 3 figures, v2 references and clarifications adde

Non-Supersymmetric Attractors

We consider theories with gravity, gauge fields and scalars in four-dimensional asymptotically flat space-time. By studying the equations of motion directly we show that the attractor mechanism can work for non-supersymmetric extremal black holes. Two conditions are sufficient for this, they are conveniently stated in terms of an effective potential involving the scalars and the charges carried by the black hole. Our analysis applies to black holes in theories with ${\cal N} \le 1$ supersymmetry, as well as non-supersymmetric black holes in theories with ${\cal N} = 2$ supersymmetry. Similar results are also obtained for extremal black holes in asymptotically Anti-de Sitter space and in higher dimensions.Comment: 55 pages, LaTeX, 7 eps figures. v3: references and some additional comments added, minor correction

Almost BPS black holes

We study non-BPS black hole solutions to ungauged supergravity with 8 supercharges coupled to vector multiplets in four and five dimensions. We identify a large class of five dimensional non-BPS solutions, which we call "almost BPS", that are supersymmetric on local patches and satisfy a first order flow governed by harmonic functions. By dimensional reduction, they give rise to new non-BPS solutions in four dimensions. These solutions allow for some nontrivial asymptotic moduli and multiple centres, similar to their globally supersymmetric cousins. We explicitly discuss a single centre and a two centre example.Comment: 26 pages, v2: appendix and references adde