Dressing a black hole with non-minimally coupled scalar field hair

We investigate the possibility of dressing a four-dimensional black hole with classical scalar field hair which is non-minimally coupled to the space-time curvature. Our model includes a cosmological constant but no self-interaction potential for the scalar field. We are able to rule out black hole hair except when the cosmological constant is negative and the constant governing the coupling to the Ricci scalar curvature is positive. In this case, non-trivial hairy black hole solutions exist, at least some of which are linearly stable. However, when the coupling constant becomes too large, the black hole hair becomes unstable.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figures, uses iopart.cls. Minor changes, accepted for publication in Classical and Quantum Gravit

Multitrace deformations, Gamow states, and Stability of AdS/CFT

We analyze the effect of multitrace deformations in conformal field theories at leading order in a large N approximation. These theories admit a description in terms of a weakly coupled gravity dual. We show how the deformations can be mapped into boundary terms of the gravity theory and how to reproduce the RG equations found in field theory. In the case of doubletrace deformations, and for bulk scalars with masses in the range $-d^2/4<m^2<-d^2/4+1$, the deformed theory flows between two fixed points of the renormalization group, manifesting a resonant behavior at the scale characterizing the transition between the two CFT's. On the gravity side the resonance is mapped into an IR non-normalizable mode (Gamow state) whose overlap with the UV region increases as the dual operator approaches the free field limit. We argue that this resonant behavior is a generic property of large N theories in the conformal window, and associate it to a remnant of the Nambu-Goldstone mode of dilatation invariance. We emphasize the role of nonminimal couplings to gravity and establish a stability theorem for scalar/gravity systems with AdS boundary conditions in the presence of arbitrary boundary potentials and nonminimal coupling.Comment: 14 pages, references added, introduction change

Gravity Dual of Gauge Theory on S^2 x S^1 x R

We (numerically) construct new static, asymptotically AdS solutions where the conformal infinity is the product of time and S^2 x S^1. There always exist a family of solutions in which the S^1 is not contractible and, for small S^1, there are two additional families of solutions in which the S^1 smoothly pinches off. This shows that (when fermions are antiperiodic around the S^1) there is a quantum phase transition in the gauge theory as one decreases the radius of the S^1 relative to the S^2. We also compare the masses of our solutions and argue that the one with lowest mass should minimize the energy among all solutions with conformal boundary S^2 x S^1 x R. This provides a new positive energy conjecture for asymptotically locally AdS metrics. A simple analytic continuation produces AdS black holes with topology S^2 x S^1.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures, v2: minor changes, added reference

Asymptotic generators of fermionic charges and boundary conditions preserving supersymmetry

We use a covariant phase space formalism to give a general prescription for defining Hamiltonian generators of bosonic and fermionic symmetries in diffeomorphism invariant theories, such as supergravities. A simple and general criterion is derived for a choice of boundary condition to lead to conserved generators of the symmetries on the phase space. In particular, this provides a criterion for the preservation of supersymmetries. For bosonic symmetries corresponding to diffeomorphisms, our prescription coincides with the method of Wald et al. We then illustrate these methods in the case of certain supergravity theories in $d=4$. In minimal AdS supergravity, the boundary conditions such that the supercharges exist as Hamiltonian generators of supersymmetry transformations are unique within the usual framework in which the boundary metric is fixed. In extended ${\mathcal N}=4$ AdS supergravity, or more generally in the presence of chiral matter superfields, we find that there exist many boundary conditions preserving ${\mathcal N}=1$ supersymmetry for which corresponding generators exist. These choices are shown to correspond to a choice of certain arbitrary boundary ``superpotentials,'' for suitably defined ``boundary superfields.'' We also derive corresponding formulae for the conserved bosonic charges, such as energy, in those theories, and we argue that energy is always positive, for any supersymmetry-preserving boundary conditions. We finally comment on the relevance and interpretation of our results within the AdS-CFT correspondence.Comment: 45 pages, Latex, no figures, v2: extended discussion of positive energy theorem and explicit form of fermionic generators, references adde

New stability results for Einstein scalar gravity

We consider asymptotically anti de Sitter gravity coupled to a scalar field with mass slightly above the Breitenlohner-Freedman bound. This theory admits a large class of consistent boundary conditions characterized by an arbitrary function $W$. An important open question is to determine which $W$ admit stable ground states. It has previously been shown that the total energy is bounded from below if $W$ is bounded from below and the bulk scalar potential $V(\phi)$ admits a suitable superpotential. We extend this result and show that the energy remains bounded even in some cases where $W$ can become arbitrarily negative. As one application, this leads to the possibility that in gauge/gravity duality, one can add a double trace operator with negative coefficient to the dual field theory and still have a stable vacuum

Gravitational Waves in Open de Sitter Space

We compute the spectrum of primordial gravitational wave perturbations in open de Sitter spacetime. The background spacetime is taken to be the continuation of an O(5) symmetric instanton saddle point of the Euclidean no boundary path integral. The two-point tensor fluctuations are computed directly from the Euclidean path integral. The Euclidean correlator is then analytically continued into the Lorentzian region where it describes the quantum mechanical vacuum fluctuations of the graviton field. Unlike the results of earlier work, the correlator is shown to be unique and well behaved in the infrared. We show that the infrared divergence found in previous calculations is due to the contribution of a discrete gauge mode inadvertently included in the spectrum.Comment: 17 pages, compressed and RevTex file, including one postscript figure fil

Holographic models of de Sitter QFTs

We describe the dynamics of strongly coupled field theories in de Sitter spacetime using the holographic gauge/gravity duality. The main motivation for this is to explore the possibility of dynamical phase transitions during cosmological evolution. Specifically, we study two classes of theories: (i) conformal field theories on de Sitter in the static patch which are maintained in equilibrium at temperatures that may differ from the de Sitter temperature and (ii) confining gauge theories on de Sitter spacetime. In the former case we show the such states make sense from the holographic viewpoint in that they have regular bulk gravity solutions. In the latter situation we add to the evidence for a confinement/deconfinement transition for a large N planar gauge theory as the cosmological acceleration is increased past a critical value. For the field theories we study, the critical acceleration corresponds to a de Sitter temperature which is less than the Minkowski space deconfinement transition temperature by a factor of the spacetime dimension.Comment: 35 pages, LaTeX, 4 figures, v2: refs adde

Three-dimensional black holes, gravitational solitons, kinks and wormholes for BHT massive gravity

The theory of massive gravity in three dimensions recently proposed by Bergshoeff, Hohm and Townsend (BHT) is considered. At the special case when the theory admits a unique maximally symmetric solution, a conformally flat space that contains black holes and gravitational solitons for any value of the cosmological constant is found. For negative cosmological constant, the black hole is characterized in terms of the mass and the "gravitational hair" parameter, providing a lower bound for the mass. For negative mass parameter, the black hole acquires an inner horizon, and the entropy vanishes at the extremal case. Gravitational solitons and kinks, being regular everywhere, are obtained from a double Wick rotation of the black hole. A wormhole solution in vacuum that interpolates between two static universes of negative spatial curvature is obtained as a limiting case of the gravitational soliton with a suitable identification. The black hole and the gravitational soliton fit within a set of relaxed asymptotically AdS conditions as compared with the ones of Brown and Henneaux. In the case of positive cosmological constant the black hole possesses an event and a cosmological horizon, whose mass is bounded from above. Remarkably, the temperatures of the event and the cosmological horizons coincide, and at the extremal case one obtains the analogue of the Nariai solution, $dS_{2}\times S^{1}$. A gravitational soliton is also obtained through a double Wick rotation of the black hole. The Euclidean continuation of these solutions describes instantons with vanishing Euclidean action. For vanishing cosmological constant the black hole and the gravitational soliton are asymptotically locally flat spacetimes. The rotating solutions can be obtained by boosting the previous ones in the $t-\phi$ plane.Comment: Talk given at the "Workshop on Gravity in Three Dimensions," 14-24 April 2009, ESI, Vienna. 30 pages, 6 figures. V2: minor changes and section 6 slightly improved. Last version for JHE

Non-supersymmetric Conifold

We find a new family of non-supersymmetric numerical solutions of IIB supergravity which are dual to the N=1 cascading "conifold" theory perturbed by certain combinations of relevant single trace and marginal double trace operators with non infinitesimal couplings. The SUSY is broken but the resulting ground states, and their gravity duals, remain stable, at least perturbatively.Despite the complicated field theory dynamics the gravity solutions have a simple structure. They feature the Ricci-flat non-Kahler metric on the deformed conifold and the imaginary self-dual three-form flux accompanied by a constant dilaton.Comment: 27 pages, 6 figures; v2: minor corrections; v3: comments adde