Small Black holes vs horizonless solutions in AdS

It is argued that the appropriate macroscopic description of half-BPS mesonic chiral operators in generic $d=4$ ${\cal N}=1$ toric gauge theories is in terms of the geometric quantization of smooth horizonless configurations. The relevance of different ensemble macroscopic descriptions is emphasized : lorentzian vs euclidean configurations as (semiclassical) microstates vs saddle points in an euclidean path integral.Comment: 10 pages; v2 improved entropy discussion and new references include

Supersymmetric Baryonic Branes

We derive an energy bound for a `baryonic' D5-brane probe in the $adS_5\times S^5$ background near the horizon of $N$ D3-branes. Configurations saturating the bound are shown to be 1/4 supersymmetric $S^5$-wrapped D5-branes, with a total Born-Infeld charge $N$. Previous results are recovered as a special case. We derive a similar energy bound for a `baryonic' M5-brane probe in the background of $N$ M5-branes. Configurations saturating the bound are again 1/4 supersymmetric and, in the $adS_7\times S^4$ near-horizon limit, provide a worldvolume realization of the `baryon string' vertex of the (2,0)-supersymmetric six-dimensional conformal field theory on coincident M5-branes. For the full M5-background we find a worldvolume realization of the Hanany-Witten effect in M-theory.Comment: 32 pp. Third version is the same as the second except for a little additional material. To appear in JHE

Extremal black holes, Holography & Coarse graining

I review some of the concepts at the crossroads of gravitational thermodynamics, holography and quantum mechanics. First, the origin of gravitational thermodynamics due to coarse graining of quantum information is exemplified using the half-BPS sector of ${\cal N}=4$ SYM and its LLM description in type IIB supergravity. The notion of black holes as effective geometries, its relation to the fuzzball programme and some of the puzzles raising for large black holes are discussed. Second, I review recent progress for extremal black holes, both microscopically, discussing a constituent model for stationary extremal non-bps black holes, and semiclassically, discussing the extremal black hole/CFT conjecture. The latter is examined from the AdS${}_3$/CFT${}_2$ perspective. Third, I review the importance of the holographic principle to encode non-local gravity features allowing us to relate the gravitational physics of local observers with thermodynamics and the role causality plays in these arguments by identifying horizons (screens) as diathermic walls. I speculate with the emergence of an approximate CFT in the deep IR close to any horizon and its relation with an effective dynamical description of the degrees of freedom living on these holographic screens.Comment: 68 pages, 6 figures, invited review published in International Journal of Modern Physics A; v2 contains further references and extra comments on rotating extremal multi-center black hole configuration

Strings vs Spins on the Null Orbifold

We study the null orbifold singularity in 2+1 d flat space higher spin theory as well as string theory. Using the Chern-Simons formulation of 2+1 d Einstein gravity, we first observe that despite the singular nature of this geometry, the eigenvalues of its Chern-Simons holonomy are trivial. Next, we construct a resolution of the singularity in higher spin theory: a Kundt spacetime with vanishing scalar curvature invariants. We also point out that the UV divergences previously observed in the 2-to-2 tachyon tree level string amplitude on the null orbifold do not arise in the $\alpha^\prime\to \infty$ limit. We find all the divergences of the amplitude and demonstrate that the ones remaining in the tensionless limit are physical IR-type divergences. We conclude with a discussion on the meaning and limitations of higher spin (cosmological) singularity resolution and its potential connection to string theory.Comment: 27 pages, 5 figures, v2: comments about boundary conditions added, strengthening the conclusio