Universal Properties of the Langevin Diffusion Coefficients

We show that in generic isotropic holographic theories the longitudinal Langevin diffusion coefficient along the string motion is larger compared to that of the transverse direction. We argue that this is a universal relation and we derive the generic conditions in order to be satisfied. A way to violate the relation is to consider anisotropic gauge/gravity dualities. We give an explicit example of this violation where the noise along the transverse direction is larger than the noise occurring along the quark motion. Moreover, we derive the effective world-sheet temperature for any generic theory and then the conditions for negative excess noise. We argue that isotropic theories can not have negative excess noise and we additionally remark that these conditions are difficult to get satisfied, indicating positivity of the excess noise, even in a large class of anisotropic holographic theories.Comment: 5 pages, double column format; v3:Published versio

Instability of BTZ black holes in parity-even massive gravity

We investigate the linearized equations of motion in three dimensional Born-Infeld gravity theory. Motivated by this model, we calculate the quasinormal modes of BTZ black hole solutions of parity-even gravity theories in three dimensions by using numerical methods. The results are classified in three families and they are so accurate such that it allows us to propose analytical form for the quasinormal frequencies. We find new quasinormal modes which have been missing in the literature of the analytical studies of three dimensional massive gravitons. These new modes do not have the known tower structure and they are purely imaginary for any value of the angular momenta. Considering the complete set of the quasinormal modes, we show that the BTZ black hole solutions are unstable for any value of the parameters of the theory. We confirm our numerical results by computing the new eigenmodes analytically at zero angular momentum.Comment: 21 pages, 2 figures, two plots and analytical analysis to support our numerical results are added, typos correcte

On Born-Infeld Gravity in Three Dimensions

In this paper we explore different aspects of three dimensional Born-Infeld as well as Born-Infeld-Chern-Simons gravity. We show that the models have AdS and AdS-wave vacuum solutions. Moreover we observe that although Born-Infeld-Chern-Simons gravity admits a logarithmic solution, Born-Infeld gravity does not, though it has a limiting logarithmic solution as we approach the critical point.Comment: 12 page

Non-equilibrium dynamics and phase transitions

We study the poles of the retarded Green's functions of strongly coupled field theories exhibiting a variety of phase structures from a crossover up to a first order phase transition. These theories are modeled by a dual gravitational description. The poles of the holographic Green's functions appear at the frequencies of the quasinormal modes of the dual black hole background. We establish that near the transition, in all cases considered, the applicability of a hydrodynamic description breaks down already at lower momenta than in the conformal case. We establish the appearance of the spinodal region in the case of the first order phase transition at temperatures for which the speed of sound squared is negative. An estimate of the preferential scale attained by the unstable modes is also given. We additionally observe a novel diffusive regime for sound modes for a range of wavelengths.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures. Some points are clarified. Typos corrtecte

The Imaginary Part of the Static Potential in Strongly Coupled Anisotropic Plasma

Using the gauge/gravity duality we study the imaginary part of the static potential associated to the thermal width in finite temperature strongly coupled anisotropic plasma. We firstly derive the potential for a generic anisotropic background. Then we apply our formulas to a theory where the anisotropy has been generated by a space dependent axion term. We find that using our method there exist a peculiar turning point in the imaginary part of the potential, similar to the one appearing in the real part. The presence of anisotropy leads to decrease of the imaginary potential, where larger decrease happens along the anisotropic direction when the temperature is kept fixed. When the entropy density is fixed, increase happens along the parallel direction while along the transverse plane we observe a decrease. To estimate the thermal width we use an approximate extrapolation beyond the turning point and we find a decrease in presence of the anisotropy, independently of the comparison scheme used.Comment: 20+4 pages, 15 figures, v2: version published in JHE

Quasinormal modes and the phase structure of strongly coupled matter

We investigate the poles of the retarded Green's functions of strongly coupled field theories exhibiting a variety of phase structures from a crossover up to different first order phase transitions. These theories are modeled by a dual gravitational description. The poles of the holographic Green's functions appear at the frequencies of the quasinormal modes of the dual black hole background. We focus on quantifying linearized level dynamical response of the system in the critical region of phase diagram. Generically non-hydrodynamic degrees of freedom are important for the low energy physics in the vicinity of a phase transition. For a model with linear confinement in the meson spectrum we find degeneracy of hydrodynamic and non-hydrodynamic modes close to the minimal black hole temperature, and we establish a region of temperatures with unstable non-hydrodynamic modes in a branch of black hole solutions.Comment: 33 pages, 14 figure

Linearized nonequilibrium dynamics in nonconformal plasma

We investigate the behaviour of the lowest nonhydrodynamic modes in a class of holographic models which exhibit an equation of state closely mimicking the one determined from lattice QCD. We calculate the lowest quasinormal mode frequencies for a range of scalar self-interaction potentials and find that the damping of the quasinormal modes at the phase transition/crossover falls off by a factor of around two from conformality after factoring out standard conformal temperature dependence. The damping encoded in the imaginary part of the frequencies turns out to be correlated with the speed of sound and is basically independent of the UV details of the model. We also find that the dynamics of the nonhydrodynamic degrees of freedom remains ultralocal, even to a higher degree, as we deviate from conformality. These results indicate that the role of nonhydrodynamic degrees of freedom in the vicinity of the crossover transition may be enhanced

Nonlinear Oscillatory Shear Tests in Viscoelastic Holography

We provide the first characterization of the nonlinear and time dependent rheologic response of viscoelastic bottom-up holographic models. More precisely, we perform oscillatory shear tests in holographic massive gravity theories with finite elastic response, focusing on the large amplitude oscillatory shear (LAOS) regime. The characterization of these systems is done using several techniques: (I) the Lissajous figures, (II) the Fourier analysis of the stress signal, (III) the Pipkin diagram and (IV) the dependence of the storage and loss moduli on the amplitude of the applied strain. We find substantial evidence for a strong strain stiffening mechanism, typical of hyper-elastic materials such as rubbers and complex polymers. This indicates that the holographic models considered are not a good description for rigid metals, where strain stiffening is not commonly observed. Additionally, a crossover between a viscoelastic liquid regime at small graviton mass (compared to the temperature scale), and a viscoelastic solid regime at large values is observed. Finally, we discuss the relevance of our results for soft matter and for the understanding of the widely used homogeneous holographic models with broken translations.Comment: v2: Matching the version published in PRL