Numerical simulation of a possible counterexample to cosmic censorship

A numerical simulation is presented here of the evolution of initial data of the kind that was conjectured by Hertog, Horowitz and Maeda to be a violation of cosmic censorship. That initial data is essentially a thick domain wall connecting two regions of anti-deSitter space. The initial data has a free parameter that is the initial size of the wall. The simulation shows no violation of cosmic censorship, but rather the formation of a small black hole. The simulation described here is for a moderate wall size and leaves open the possibility that cosmic censorship might be violated for larger walls.Comment: discussion clarifie

Is It Really Naked? On Cosmic Censorship in String Theory

We investigate the possibility of cosmic censorship violation in string theory using a characteristic double-null code, which penetrates horizons and is capable of resolving the spacetime all the way to the singularity. We perform high-resolution numerical simulations of the evolution of negative mass initial scalar field profiles, which were argued to provide a counterexample to cosmic censorship conjecture for AdS-asymptotic spacetimes in five-dimensional supergravity. In no instances formation of naked singularity is seen. Instead, numerical evidence indicates that black holes form in the collapse. Our results are consistent with earlier numerical studies, and explicitly show where the `no black hole' argument breaks.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, 1 table; REVTeX 4.

Decays of near BPS heterotic strings

The decay of highly excited massive string states in compactified heterotic string theories is discussed. We calculate the decay rate and spectrum of states carrying momentum and winding in the compactified direction. The longest lived states in the spectrum are near BPS states whose decay is dominated by a single decay channel of massless radiation which brings the state closer to being BPS.Comment: 28 pages, harvmac, 3 figure

Accelerating Cosmologies from S-Branes

We point out that the recently proposed model of a flat 4-dimensional universe with accelerated expansion in string/M-theory is a special case of time-dependent solutions that the author found under the name of ``S-branes.'' We also show that similar accelerating models can be obtained from S-branes if the internal space is chosen to be hyperbolic or flat spaces.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, comments added, a typo corrected, final version to appear in Phys. Rev. Let

Holographic RG-flows and Boundary CFTs

Solutions of $(d+1)$-dimensional gravity coupled to a scalar field are obtained, which holographically realize interface and boundary CFTs. The solution utilizes a Janus-like $\mathrm{AdS}_d$ slicing ansatz and corresponds to a deformation of the CFT by a spatially-dependent coupling of a relevant operator. The BCFT solutions are singular in the bulk, but physical quantities such as the holographic entanglement entropy can be calculated.Comment: 26 pages, 11 figure

String Junctions and Holographic Interfaces

In this paper we study half-BPS type IIB supergravity solutions with multiple $AdS_3\times S^3\times M_4$ asymptotic regions, where $M_4$ is either $T^4$ or $K_3$. These solutions were first constructed in [1] and have geometries given by the warped product of $AdS_2 \times S^2 \times M_4$ over $\Sigma$, where $\Sigma$ is a Riemann surface. We show that the holographic boundary has the structure of a star graph, i.e. $n$ half-lines joined at a point. The attractor mechanism and the relation of the solutions to junctions of self-dual strings in six-dimensional supergravity are discussed. The solutions of [1] are constructed introducing two meromorphic and two harmonic functions defined on $\Sigma$. We focus our analysis on solutions corresponding to junctions of three different conformal field theories and show that the conditions for having a solution charged only under Ramond-Ramond three-form fields reduce to relations involving the positions of the poles and the residues of the relevant harmonic and meromorphic functions. The degeneration limit in which some of the poles collide is analyzed in detail. Finally, we calculate the holographic boundary entropy for a junction of three CFTs and obtain a simple expression in terms of poles and residues.Comment: 54 pages, 6 figures, pdf-LaTeX, v2: minor change