Global Scaling Symmetry, Noether Charge and Universality of Shear Viscosity

Recently it was established in Einstein-Maxwell-Dilaton gravity that the KSS viscosity/entropy ratio associated with AdS planar black holes can be viewed as the boundary dual to the generalized Smarr relation of the black holes in the bulk. In this paper we establish this relation in Einstein gravity with general minimally-coupled matter, and also in theories with an additional non-minimally coupled scalar field. We consider two examples for explicit demonstrations.Comment: 16 pages, no figur

Lifshitz and Schrodinger Vacua, Superstar Resolution in Gauged Maximal Supergravities

We consider the subset of gauged maximal supergravities that consists of the SO(n+1) gauge fields A^{ij} and the scalar deformation T^{ij} of the S^n in the spherical reduction of M-theory or type IIB. We focus on the Abelian Cartan subgroup and the diagonal entries of T^{ij}. The resulting theories can be viewed as the STU models with additional hyperscalars. We find that the theories with only one or two such vectors can be generalized naturally to arbitrary dimensions. The same is true for the D=4 or 5 Einstein-Maxwell theory with such a hyperscalar. The gauge fields become massive, determined by stationary points of the hyperscalars a la the analogous Abelian Higgs mechanism. We obtain classes of Lifshitz and Schrodinger vacua in these theories. The scaling exponent z turns out to be rather restricted, taking fractional or irrational numbers. Tweaking the theories by relaxing the mass parameter or making a small change of the superpotential, we find that solutions with z=2 can emerge. In a different application, we find that the resolution of superstar singularity in the STU models by using bubbling-AdS solitons can be generalized to arbitrary dimensions in our theories. In particular, we obtain the smooth AdS solitons that can be viewed as the resolution of the Reissner-Nordstrom superstars in general dimensions.Comment: Latex, 24 page

Thermodynamics of Lifshitz Black Holes

We specialize the Wald formalism to derive the thermodynamical first law for static black holes with spherical/torus/hyperbolic symmetries in a variety of supergravities or supergravity-inspired theories involving multiple scalars and vectors. We apply the formula to study the first law of a general class of Lifshitz black holes. We analyse the first law of three exact Lifshitz black holes and the results fit the general pattern. In one example, the first law is $TdS + \Phi dQ=0$ where $(\Phi,Q)$ are the electric potential and charge of the Maxwell field. The unusual vanishing of mass in this specific solution demonstrates that super-extremal charged black holes can exist in asymptotic Lifshitz spacetimes.Comment: 27 page

Scalar Charges in Asymptotic AdS Geometries

We show that for n-dimensional Einstein gravity coupled to a scalar field with mass-squared m_0^2=-n(n-2)/(4\ell^2), the first law of thermodynamics of (charged) AdS black holes will be modified by the boundary conditions of the scalar field at asymptotic infinity. Such scalars can arise in gauged supergravities in four and six dimensions, but not in five or seven. The result provides a guiding principle for constructing designer black holes and solitons in general dimensions, where the properties of the dual field theories depend on the boundary conditions.Comment: Latex, 9 pages, references adde

Holographic Complexity Growth Rate in Horndeski Theory

Based on the context of complexity = action (CA) conjecture, we calculate the holographic complexity of AdS black holes with planar and spherical topologies in Horndeski theory. We find that the rate of change of holographic complexity for neutral AdS black holes saturates the Lloyd's bound. For charged black holes, we find that there exists only one horizon and thus the corresponding holographic complexity can't be expressed as the difference of some thermodynamical potential between two horizons as that of Reissner-Nordstrom AdS black hole in Einstein-Maxwell theory. However, the Lloyd's bound is not violated for charged AdS black hole in Horndeski theory.Comment: 20 pages, 6 figures, references added, typos correcte

Holographic Heat Current as Noether Current

We employ the Noether procedure to derive a general formula for the radially conserved heat current in AdS planar black holes with certain transverse and traceless perturbations, for a general class of gravity theories. For Einstein gravity, the general higher-order Lovelock gravities and also a class of Horndeski gravities, we derive the boundary stress tensor and show that the resulting boundary heat current matches precisely the bulk Noether current.Comment: Latex, 27 pages, typos corrected, comments added, references adde

Quasi-Topological Ricci Polynomial Gravities

Quasi-topological terms in gravity can be viewed as those that give no contribution to the equations of motion for a special subclass of metric ans\"atze. They therefore play no r\^ole in constructing these solutions, but can affect the general perturbations. We consider Einstein gravity extended with Ricci tensor polynomial invariants, which admits Einstein metrics with appropriate effective cosmological constants as its vacuum solutions. We construct three types of quasi-topological gravities. The first type is for the most general static metrics with spherical, toroidal or hyperbolic isometries. The second type is for the special static metrics where $g_{tt} g_{rr}$ is constant. The third type is the linearized quasi-topological gravities on the Einstein metrics. We construct and classify results that are either dependent on or independent of dimensions, up to the tenth order. We then consider a subset of these three types and obtain Lovelock-like quasi-topological gravities, that are independent of the dimensions. The linearized gravities on Einstein metrics on all dimensions are simply Einstein and hence ghost free. The theories become quasi-topological on static metrics in one specific dimension, but non-trivial in others. We also focus on the quasi-topological Ricci cubic invariant in four dimensions as a specific example to study its effect on holography, including shear viscosity, thermoelectric DC conductivities and butterfly velocity. In particular, we find that the holographic diffusivity bounds can be violated by the quasi-topological terms, which can induce an extra massive mode that yields a butterfly velocity unbound above.Comment: Latex, 56 pages, discussion on shear viscosity revise

Thermodynamics of Einstein-Proca AdS Black Holes

We study static spherically-symmetric solutions of the Einstein-Proca equations in the presence of a negative cosmological constant. We show that the theory admits solutions describing both black holes and also solitons in an asymptotically AdS background. Interesting subtleties can arise in the computation of the mass of the solutions and also in the derivation of the first law of thermodynamics. We make use of holographic renormalisation in order to calculate the mass, even in cases where the solutions have a rather slow approach to the asymptotic AdS geometry. By using the procedure developed by Wald, we derive the first law of thermodynamics for the black hole and soliton solutions. This includes a non-trivial contribution associated with the Proca "charge." The solutions cannot be found analytically, and so we make use of numerical integration techniques to demonstrate their existence.Comment: 35 pages, Improved discussion of cases with logarithmic asymptotic fall off