Universal Kaluza-Klein reductions of type IIB to N=4 supergravity in five dimensions

We construct explicit consistent Kaluza-Klein reductions of type IIB supergravity on HK_4 x S^1, where HK_4 is an arbitrary four-dimensional hyper-Kaehler manifold, and on SE5, an arbitrary five-dimensional Sasaki-Einstein manifold. In the former case we obtain the bosonic action of D=5 N=4 (ungauged) supergravity coupled to two vector multiplets. For the SE_5 case we extend a known reduction, which leads to minimal D=5 N=2 gauged supergravity, to also include a multiplet of massive fields, containing the breathing mode of the SE_5. We show that the resulting D=5 action is also consistent with N=4 gauged supergravity coupled to two vector multiplets. This theory has a supersymmetric AdS_5 vacuum, which uplifts to the class of supersymmetric AdS_5 x SE_5 solutions, that spontaneously breaks N=4 to N=2, and also a non-supersymmetric AdS_5 vacuum which uplifts to a class of solutions first found by Romans.Comment: 1+34 pages. v2: Minor typos corrected, three references added. Version to be published in JHE

Concentric Black Rings

We present new supersymmetric solutions of five-dimensional minimal supergravity that describe concentric black rings with an optional black hole at the common centre. Configurations of two black rings are found which have the same conserved charges as a single rotating black hole; these black rings can have a total horizon area less than, equal to, or greater than the black hole with the same charges. A numerical investigation of these particular black ring solutions suggests that they do not have closed timelike curves.Comment: 7 pages, minor alterations, typos corrected. Version to be published in PR

Universal fermionic spectral functions from string theory

We carry out the first holographic calculation of a fermionic response function for a strongly coupled $d=3$ system with an explicit D=10 or D=11 supergravity dual. By considering the supersymmetry current, we obtain a universal result applicable to all d=3 N=2 SCFTs with such duals. Surprisingly, the spectral function does not exhibit a Fermi surface, despite the fact that the system is at finite charge density. We show that it has a phonino pole and at low frequencies there is a depletion of spectral weight with a power-law scaling which is governed by a locally quantum critical point.Comment: 5 pages. Content the same, but significant change of presentation. Version to be published in Phys. Rev. Let