Supersymmetric AdS_4 black holes and attractors

Using the general recipe given in arXiv:0804.0009, where all timelike supersymmetric solutions of N=2, D=4 gauged supergravity coupled to abelian vector multiplets were classified, we construct the first examples of genuine supersymmetric black holes in AdS_4 with nonconstant scalar fields. This is done for various choices of the prepotential, amongst others for the STU model. These solutions permit to study the BPS attractor flow in AdS. We also determine the most general supersymmetric static near-horizon geometry and obtain the attractor equations in gauged supergravity. As a general feature we find the presence of flat directions in the black hole potential, i.e., generically the values of the moduli on the horizon are not completely specified by the charges. For one of the considered prepotentials, the resulting moduli space is determined explicitely. Still, in all cases, we find that the black hole entropy depends only on the charges, in agreement with the attractor mechanism.Comment: 25 pages, uses JHEP3.cl

BPS black holes in N=2 D=4 gauged supergravities

We construct and analyze BPS black hole solutions in gauged N=2, D=4 supergravity with charged hypermultiplets. A class of solutions can be found through spontaneous symmetry breaking in vacua that preserve maximal supersymmetry. The resulting black holes do not carry any hair for the scalars. We demonstrate this with explicit examples of both asymptotically flat and anti-de Sitter black holes. Next, we analyze the BPS conditions for asymptotically flat black holes with scalar hair and spherical or axial symmetry. We find solutions only in cases when the metric contains ripples and the vector multiplet scalars become ghost-like. We give explicit examples that can be analyzed numerically. Finally, we comment on a way to circumvent the ghost-problem by introducing also fermionic hair.Comment: 40 pages, 2 figures; v2 references added; v3 minor changes, published versio

Holographic Vitrification

We establish the existence of stable and metastable stationary black hole bound states at finite temperature and chemical potentials in global and planar four-dimensional asymptotically anti-de Sitter space. We determine a number of features of their holographic duals and argue they represent structural glasses. We map out their thermodynamic landscape in the probe approximation, and show their relaxation dynamics exhibits logarithmic aging, with aging rates determined by the distribution of barriers.Comment: 100 pages, 25 figure

Ultrafast Light and Electrons: Imaging the Invisible

In this chapter, the evolutionary and revolutionary developments of microscopic imaging are overviewed with focus on ultrashort light and electrons pulses; for simplicity, we shall use the term “ultrafast” for both. From Alhazen’s camera obscura, to Hooke and van Leeuwenhoek’s optical micrography, and on to three- and four-dimensional (4D) electron microscopy, the developments over a millennium have transformed humans’ scope of visualization. The changes in the length and time scales involved are unimaginable, beginning with the visible shadows of candles at the centimeter and second scales, and ending with invisible atoms with space and time dimensions of sub-nanometer and femtosecond, respectively. With these advances it has become possible to determine the structures of matter and to observe their elementary dynamics as they fold and unfold in real time, providing the means for visualizing materials behavior and biological function, with the aim of understanding emergent phenomena in complex systems. Both light and light-generated electrons are now at the forefront of femtosecond and attosecond science and technology, and the scope of applications has reached beyond the nuclear motion as electron dynamics become accessible

Non-extremal black holes of N=2, d=4 supergravity

We propose a generic recipe for deforming extremal black holes into non-extremal black holes and we use it to find and study the non-extremal black-hole solutions of several N=2,d=4 supergravity models (SL(2,R)/U(1), CPn and STU with four charges). In all the cases considered, the non-extremal family of solutions smoothly interpolates between all the different extremal limits, supersymmetric and not supersymmetric. This fact can be used to find explicitly extremal non-supersymmetric solutions in the cases in which the attractor mechanism does not completely fix the values of the scalars on the event horizon and they still depend on the boundary conditions at spatial infinity. We compare (supersymmetry) Bogomol'nyi bounds with extremality bounds, we find the first-order flow equations for the non-extremal solutions and the corresponding superpotential, which gives in the different extremal limits different superpotentials for extremal black holes. We also compute the "entropies" (areas) of the inner (Cauchy) and outer (event) horizons, finding in all cases that their product gives the square of the moduli-independent entropy of the extremal solution with the same electric and magnetic charges.Comment: Many small, inessential changes. Some misprints corrected and a few references adde

OptCom: A Multi-Level Optimization Framework for the Metabolic Modeling and Analysis of Microbial Communities

Microorganisms rarely live isolated in their natural environments but rather function in consolidated and socializing communities. Despite the growing availability of high-throughput sequencing and metagenomic data, we still know very little about the metabolic contributions of individual microbial players within an ecological niche and the extent and directionality of interactions among them. This calls for development of efficient modeling frameworks to shed light on less understood aspects of metabolism in microbial communities. Here, we introduce OptCom, a comprehensive flux balance analysis framework for microbial communities, which relies on a multi-level and multi-objective optimization formulation to properly describe trade-offs between individual vs. community level fitness criteria. In contrast to earlier approaches that rely on a single objective function, here, we consider species-level fitness criteria for the inner problems while relying on community-level objective maximization for the outer problem. OptCom is general enough to capture any type of interactions (positive, negative or combinations thereof) and is capable of accommodating any number of microbial species (or guilds) involved. We applied OptCom to quantify the syntrophic association in a well-characterized two-species microbial system, assess the level of sub-optimal growth in phototrophic microbial mats, and elucidate the extent and direction of inter-species metabolite and electron transfer in a model microbial community. We also used OptCom to examine addition of a new member to an existing community. Our study demonstrates the importance of trade-offs between species- and community-level fitness driving forces and lays the foundation for metabolic-driven analysis of various types of interactions in multi-species microbial systems using genome-scale metabolic models