Holographic Nuclei : Supersymmetric Examples

We provide a dual gravity description of a supersymmetric heavy nucleus, following the idea of our previous paper arXiv:0809.3141. The supersymmetric nucleus consists of a merginal bound state of $A$ baryons distributed over a ball in 3 dimensions. In the gauge/string duality, the baryon in N=4 super Yang-Mills (SYM) theory corresponds to a D5-brane wrapping S^5 of the AdS_5 x S^5 spacetime, so the nucleus corresponds to a collection of $A$ D5-branes. We take a large $A$ and a near horizon limits of a back-reacted geometry generated by the wrapped $A$ D5-branes, where we find a gap in the supergravity fluctuation spectrum. This spectrum is a gravity dual of giant resonances of heavy nuclei, in the supersymmetric toy example of QCD.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures; v2:a refernce adde

Black Rings, Supertubes, and a Stringy Resolution of Black Hole Non-Uniqueness

In order to address the issues raised by the recent discovery of non-uniqueness of black holes in five dimensions, we construct a solution of string theory at low energies describing a five-dimensional spinning black ring with three charges that can be interpreted as D1-brane, D5-brane, and momentum charges. The solution possesses closed timelike curves (CTCs) and other pathologies, whose origin we clarify. These pathologies can be avoided by setting any one of the charges, e.g. the momentum, to zero. We argue that the D1-D5-charged black ring, lifted to six dimensions, describes the thermal excitation of a supersymmetric D1-D5 supertube, which is in the same U-duality class as the D0-F1 supertube. We explain how the stringy microscopic description of the D1-D5 system distinguishes between a spherical black hole and a black ring with the same asymptotic charges, and therefore provides a (partial) resolution of the non-uniqueness of black holes in five dimensions.Comment: 33 pages, 1 figur

N=1 super Yang-Mills on a (3+1) dimensional transverse lattice with one exact supersymmetry

We formulate ${\cal N}$=1 super Yang-Mills theory in 3+1 dimensions on a two dimensional transverse lattice using supersymmetric discrete light cone quantization in the large-$N_c$ limit. This formulation is free of fermion species doubling. We are able to preserve one supersymmetry. We find a rich, non-trivial behavior of the mass spectrum as a function of the coupling $g\sqrt{N_c}$, and see some sort of "transition" in the structure of a bound state as we go from the weak coupling to the strong coupling. Using a toy model we give an interpretation of the rich behavior of the mass spectrum. We present the mass spectrum as a function of the winding number for those states whose color flux winds all the way around in one of the transverse directions. We use two fits to the mass spectrum and the one that has a string theory justification appears preferable. For those states whose color flux is localized we present an extrapolated value for $m^2$ for some low energy bound states in the limit where the numerical resolution goes to infinity.Comment: 23(+2 for v3) pages, 19 figures; v2: a footnote added; v3: an appendix, comments, references added. The version to appear PR

Effects of a fundamental mass term in two-dimensional super Yang-Mills theory

We show that adding a vacuum expectation value to a gauge field left over from a dimensional reduction of three-dimensional pure supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory generates mass terms for the fundamental fields in the two-dimensional theory while supersymmetry stays intact. This is similar to the adjoint mass term that is generated by a Chern-Simons term in this theory. We study the spectrum of the two-dimensional theory as a function of the vacuum expectation value and of the Chern-Simons coupling. Apart from some symmetry issues a straightforward picture arises. We show that at least one massless state exists if the Chern-Simons coupling vanishes. The numerical spectrum separates into (almost) massless and very heavy states as the Chern-Simons coupling grows. We present evidence that the gap survives the continuum limit. We display structure functions and other properties of some of the bound states.Comment: 17 pp., 10 figs; substantially revised version to be published in Phys. Rev.

The information paradox: conflicts and resolutions

Many relativists have been long convinced that black hole evaporation leads to information loss or remnants. String theorists have however not been too worried about the issue, largely due to a belief that the Hawking argument for information loss is flawed in its details. A recently derived inequality shows that the Hawking argument for black holes with horizon can in fact be made rigorous. What happens instead is that in string theory black hole microstates have no horizons. Thus the evolution of radiation quanta with E ~ kT is modified by order unity at the horizon, and we resolve the information paradox. We discuss how it is still possible for E >> kT objects to see an approximate black hole like geometry. We also note some possible implications of this physics for the early Universe.Comment: 26 pages, 8 figures, Latex; (Expanded version of) proceedings for Lepton-Photon 201

On Exact Supersymmetry in DLCQ

In recent years a supersymmetric form of discrete light-cone quantization (hereafter `SDLCQ') has emerged as a very powerful tool for solving supersymmetric field theories. In this scheme, one calculates the light-cone supercharge with respect to a discretized light-cone Fock basis, instead of working with the light-cone Hamiltonian. This procedure has the advantage of preserving supersymmetry even in the discretized theory, and eliminates the need for explicit renormalizations in 1+1 dimensions. In order to compare the usual DLCQ prescription with the supersymmetric prescription, we consider two dimensional SU(N) Yang-Mills theory coupled to a massive adjoint Majorana fermion, which is known to be supersymmetric at a particular value of the fermion mass. After studying how singular-valued amplitudes and intermediate zero momentum modes are regularized in both schemes, we are able to establish a precise connection between conventional DLCQ and its supersymmetric extension, SDLCQ. In particular, we derive the explicit form of the (irrelevant) interaction that renders the DLCQ formulation of the theory exactly supersymmetric for any light-cone compactification. We check our analytical results via a numerical procedure, and discuss the relevance of this interaction when supersymmetry is explicitly broken.Comment: 12 page

D1D5 microstate geometries from string amplitudes

We reproduce the asymptotic expansion of the D1D5 microstate geometries by computing the emission amplitudes of closed string states from disks with mixed D1D5 boundary conditions. Thus we provide a direct link between the supergravity and D-brane descriptions of the D1D5 microstates at non-zero string coupling. Microscopically, the profile functions characterizing the microstate solutions are encoded in the choice of a condensate for the twisted open string states connecting D1 and D5 branes.Comment: 21 pages; added reference