Rapid Thermalization in Field Theory from Gravitational Collapse

Motivated by the duality with thermalization in field theory, we study gravitational collapse of a minimally coupled massless scalar field in Einstein gravity with a negative cosmological constant. We investigate the system numerically and establish that for small values of the initial amplitude of the scalar field there is no black hole formation, rather, the scalar field performs an oscillatory motion typical of geodesics in AdS. For large enough values of the amplitude of the scalar field we find black hole formation which we detect numerically as the emergence of an apparent horizon. Using the time of formation as an estimate for thermalization in the field theory we conclude that thermalization occurs very rapidly, close to the causal bound for a very wide range of black hole masses. We further study the thermalization time in more detail as a function of the amplitude and the width of the initial Gaussian scalar field profile and detect a rather mild structure.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures. v2: References added, improved most grids by a factor of 8, main results unchanged. v3 PRD versio

Black Holes in Cascading Theories: Confinement/Deconfinement Transition and other Thermal Properties

We present numerical evidence for a transition between the Klebanov-Strassler background and a solution describing a black hole in the class of cascading solutions in the chirally restored phase. We also present a number of properties of this solution, including the running of the coupling constant, the viscosity to entropy ratio and the drag force on a quark moving in this background.Comment: 34 pages, 7 figures. Version to be published by JHE

Scientific Bounty Among Meteorites Recovered from the Dominion Range, Transantarctic Mountains

The US Antarctic Meteorite Pro-gram has visited the Dominion Range in the Transantarctic Mountains during several different sea-sons, including 1985, 2003, 2008, 2010, 2014 and 2018. Total recovered meteorites from this region is close to 3000. The 1985 (11 samples), 2003 (141 samples), 2008 (521 samples), 2010 (901 samples), 2014 (562 samples) seasons have been fully classified, and 2018 (865 samples) are in the process of being classified and characterized. Given that close to 2200 samples have been classified so far, with more expected in 2020, now is a good time to summarize the state of the collection. Here we describe the significant samples documented from this area, as well as a large meteorite shower that dominates the statistics of the region

Holographic Entanglement Entropy at Finite Temperature

Using a holographic proposal for the entanglement entropy we study its behavior in various supergravity backgrounds. We are particularly interested in the possibility of using the entanglement entropy as way to detect transitions induced by the presence horizons. We consider several geometries with horizons: the black hole in $AdS_3$, nonextremal Dp-branes, dyonic black holes asymptotically to $AdS_4$ and also Schwarzschild black holes in global $AdS_p$ coordinates. Generically, we find that the entanglement entropy does not exhibit a transition, that is, one of the two possible configurations always dominates.Comment: v3: 31 pp, ten figures, modified to match version accepted by IJMP

Black Holes with Varying Flux: A Numerical Approach

We present a numerical study of type IIB supergravity solutions with varying Ramond-Ramond flux. We construct solutions that have a regular horizon and contain nontrivial five- and three-form fluxes. These solutions are holographically dual to the deconfined phase of confining field theories at finite temperature. As a calibration of the numerical method we first numerically reproduce various analytically known solutions including singular and regular nonextremal D3 branes, the Klebanov-Tseytlin solution and its singular nonextremal generalization. The horizon of the solutions we construct is of the precise form of nonextremal D3 branes. In the asymptotic region far away from the horizon we observe a logarithmic behavior similar to that of the Klebanov-Tseytlin solution.Comment: 40 pages, 15 figure

A Kolmogorov-Zakharov Spectrum in AdSAdS Gravitational Collapse

We study black hole formation during the gravitational collapse of a massless scalar field in asymptotically $AdS_D$ spacetimes for $D=4,5$. We conclude that spherically symmetric gravitational collapse in asymptotically $AdS$ spaces is turbulent and characterized by a Kolmogorov-Zakharov spectrum. Namely, we find that after an initial period of weakly nonlinear evolution, there is a regime where the power spectrum of the Ricci scalar evolves as $\omega^{-s}$ with the frequency, $\omega$, and $s\approx 1.7\pm 0.1$.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures. v2: Typos, other initial profile considered for universality, error analysis, close to PRL versio

Analytic Non-integrability in String Theory

Using analytic techniques developed for Hamiltonian dynamical systems we show that a certain classical string configurations in AdS_5 x X_5 with X_5 in a large class of Einstein spaces, is non-integrable. This answers the question of integrability of string on such backgrounds in the negative. We consider a string localized in the center of AdS_5 that winds around two circles in the manifold X_5.Comment: 14 page

On Penrose Limits and Gauge Theories

We discuss various Penrose limits of conformal and nonconformal backgrounds. In AdS_5 x T^{1,1}, for a particular choice of the angular coordinate in T^{1,1} the resulting Penrose limit coincides with the similar limit for AdS_5 x S^5. In this case an identification of a subset of field theory operators with the string zero modes creation operators is possible. For another limit we obtain a light-cone string action that resembles a particle in a magnetic field. We also consider three different types of backgrounds that are dual to nonconformal field theories: The Schwarzschild black hole in AdS_5, D3-branes on the small resolution of the conifold and the Klebanov-Tseytlin background. We find that in all three cases the introduction of nonconformality renders a theory that is no longer exactly solvable and that the form of the deformation is universal. The corresponding world sheet theory in the light-cone gauge has a \tau=x^+ dependent mass term.Comment: 17pp, late

On D-branes in the Nappi-Witten and GMM gauged WZW models

We construct D-branes in the Nappi-Witten (NW) and Guadagnini-Martellini-Mintchev (GMM) gauged WZW models. For the $SL(2,R)\times SU(2)/U(1)\times U(1)$ NW and $SU(2)\times SU(2)/U(1)$ GMM models we present the explicit equations describing the D-brane hypersurfaces in their target spaces. In the latter case we show that the D-branes are classified according to the Cardy theorem. We also present the semiclassical mass computation and find its agreement with the CFT predictions.Comment: 16 pages, harvma

Penrose Limits and RG Flows

The Penrose-Gueven limit simplifies a given supergravity solution into a pp-wave background. Aiming at clarifying its relation to renormalization group flow we study the Penrose-Guven limit of supergravity backgrounds that are dual to non-conformal gauge theories. The resulting backgrounds fall in a class simple enough that the quantum particle is exactly solvable. We propose a map between the effective time-dependent quantum mechanical problem and the RG flow in the gauge theory. As a testing ground we consider explicitly two Penrose limits of the infrared fixed point of the Pilch-Warner solution. We analyze the corresponding gauge theory picture and write down the operators which are the duals of the low lying string states. We also address RG flows of a different nature by considering the Penrose-Gueven limit of a stack of N D_p branes. We note that in the far IR (for p<3)the limit generically has negative mass-squared. This phenomenon signals, in the world sheet picture, the necessity to transform to another description. In this regard, we consider explicitly the cases of M2 from D2 and F1 from D1 .Comment: 35 pp, 6 figure