Nearing Extremal Intersecting Giants and New Decoupled Sectors in N = 4 SYM

We study near-horizon limits of near-extremal charged black hole solutions to five-dimensional $U(1)^3$ gauged supergravity carrying two charges, extending the recent work of Balasubramanian et.al. We show that there are two near-horizon decoupling limits for the near-extremal black holes, one corresponding to the near-BPS case and the other for the far from BPS case. Both of these limits are only defined on the 10d IIB uplift of the 5d black holes, resulting in a decoupled geometry with a six-dimensional part (conformal to) a rotating BTZ X $S^3$. We study various aspects of these decoupling limits both from the gravity side and the dual field theory side. For the latter we argue that there should be two different, but equivalent, dual gauge theory descriptions, one in terms of the 2d CFT's dual to the rotating BTZ and the other as certain large R-charge sectors of d=4,N =4 U(N) SYM theory. We discuss new BMN-type sectors of the N=4 SYM in the $N\to\infty$ limit in which the engineering dimensions scale as $N^{3/2}$ (for the near-BPS case) and as $N^2$ (for the far from BPS case).Comment: 44 pages, references added, minor change

On Isolated Conformal Fixed Points and Noncritical String Theory

We search for the gravity description of unidentified field theories at their conformal fixed points by studying the low energy effective action of six dimensional noncritical string theory. We find constant dilaton solutions by solving both the equations of motion and BPS equations. Our solutions include a free parameter provided by a stack of uncharged space filling branes. We find several AdS_p\times S^q solutions with constant radii for AdS_p and S^q. The curvature of the solutions are of the order of the string scale.Comment: 17 pages, Latex fil

Circular Semiclassical String solutions on Confining AdS/CFT Backgrounds

We study multiwrapped circular string pulsating in the radial direction of AdS black hole. We compute the energy of this string as a function of a large quantum number n. One then could associate it with energy and a quantum number of states in the dual finite temperature {\cal N}=4 SYM theory as well as three dimensional pure gauge theory. We observe that the n dependence of the energy has a universal form. We have also considered pulsating string in the background of the near-extremal D4-brane solution. Circular pulsating membrane in M-theory on AdS_7\times S^4 has also been studied.Comment: 14 pages, latex, v2: typos corrected, refs. adde

2D Gravity on AdS2AdS_2 with Chern-Simons Corrections

We study 2D Maxwell-dilaton gravity with higher order corrections given by the Chern-Simons term. The model admits three distinctive $AdS_2$ vacuum solutions. By making use of the entropy function formalism we find the entropy of the solutions which is corrected due to the presence of the Chern-Simons term. We observe that the form of the correction depends not only on the coefficient of the Chern-Simons term, but also on the sign of the electric charge; pointing toward the chiral nature of the dual CFT. Using the asymptotic symmetry of the theory as well as requiring a consistent picture we can find the central charge and the level of U(1) current. Upon uplifting the solutions to three dimensions we get purely geometric solutions which will be either $AdS_3$ or warped $AdS_3$ with an identification.Comment: 15 pages; V2: refs adde

Holographic Phase Transition to Topological Dyons

The dynamical stability of a Julia-Zee solution in the AdS background in a four dimensional Einstein-Yang-Mills-Higgs theory is studied. We find that the model with a vanishing scalar field develops a non-zero value for the field at a certain critical temperature which corresponds to a topological dyon in the bulk and a topological phase transition at the boundary.Comment: 18 pages, 2 figures, 2 tables, sections 2 and 4 are shortened, an error in the last part of section 5 is corrected and equations are modified. This version to be published in JHE

Semiclassical String Solutions on deformed NS5-brane Backgrounds and New Plane wave

We study different Penrose limits of supergravity solution of NS5-brane in the presence of RR field. Although in the case of NS5-brane we get a 4-dimensional plane wave, in the case with RR field we will get two different plane waves; a 4-dimensional and a 3-dimensional one. These plane wave solutions are the backgrounds that a particular string solution feels at one loop approximation. Using the one loop correction one can identify a particular subsector of LST/deformed LST which is dual to type II string theories on these plane waves.Comment: 18 pages, latex, v2: Minor changes, typos correcte

Dual Spikes; New Spiky String Solutions

We find a new class of spiky solutions for closed strings in flat, $AdS_3\subset AdS_5$ and $R\times S^2(\subset S^5)$ backgrounds. In the flat case the new solutions turn out to be T-dual configurations of spiky strings found by Kruczenski hep-th/0410226. In the case of solutions living in $AdS$, we make a semi classical analysis by taking the large angular momentum limit. The anomalous dimension for these dual spikes is similar to that for rotating and pulsating circular strings in AdS with angular momentum playing the role of the level number. This replaces the well known logarithmic dependence for spinning strings. For the dual spikes living on sphere we find that no large angular momentum limit exists.Comment: Added reference

On Effective Superpotentials and Compactification to Three Dimensions

We study four dimensional N=2 SO/SP supersymmetric gauge theory on R^3\times S^1 deformed by a tree level superpotential. We will show that the exact superpotential can be obtained by making use of the Lax matrix of the corresponding integrable model which is the periodic Toda lattice. The connection between vacua of SO(2N) and SO(2kN-2k+2) can also be seen in this framework. Similar analysis can also be applied for SO(2N+1) and SP(2N).Comment: 18 pages, latex file, v2: typos corrected, refs adde

N=1 G_2 SYM theory and Compactification to Three Dimensions

We study four dimensional N=2 G_2 supersymmetric gauge theory on R^3\times S^1 deformed by a tree level superpotential. We will show that the exact superpotential can be obtained by making use of the Lax matrix of the corresponding integrable model which is the periodic Toda lattice based on the dual of the affine G_2 Lie algebra. At extrema of the superpotential the Seiberg-Witten curve typically factorizes, and we study the algebraic equations underlying this factorization. For U(N) theories the factorization was closely related to the geometrical engineering of such gauge theories and to matrix model descriptions, but here we will find that the geometrical interpretation is more mysterious. Along the way we give a method to compute the gauge theory resolvent and a suitable set of one-forms on the Seiberg-Witten curve. We will also find evidence that the low-energy dynamics of G_2 gauge theories can effectively be described in terms of an auxiliary hyperelliptic curve.Comment: 27 pages, late

Conformal SO(2,4) Transformations for the Helical AdS String Solution

By applying the conformal SO(2,4) transformations to the folded rotating string configuration with two spins given by a certain limit from the helical string solution in AdS_3 x S^1, we construct new string solutions whose energy-spin relations are characterized by the boost parameter. When two SO(2,4) transformations are performed with two boost parameters suitably chosen, the straight folded rotating string solution with one spin in AdS_3 is transformed in the long string limit into the long spiky string solution whose expression is given from the helical string solution in AdS_3 by making a limit that the modulus parameter becomes unity.Comment: 16 pages, LaTex, no figure