In this contribution we describe some soliton based techniques for generating classical AdS string solutions. The methods introduced are useful for further understanding of rotating AdS configurations with spikes which correspond to higher twist operators in SYM theory. The main identification (accomplished in arXiv:0712.1193) between solitons and string spikes is reviewed and extended. We describe how inverse scattering technique can be applied for reconstructing AdS string configurations from soliton solutions of sinh-Gordon theory (in the example of ${\rm AdS}_3$).
We study the basic holographic insulator and superconductor phase transition in the AdS soliton background by generalizing the spontaneous breaking of a global U(1) symmetry to occur via St$\ddot{u}$ckelberg mechanism. We construct the soliton solutions with backreaction and examine the effects of the backreaction on the condensation of the scalar hair in the generalized St$\ddot{u}$ckelberg Lagrangian. We disclose rich physics in various phase transitions. In addition to the AdS soliton configuration, we also examine the property of the phase transition in the AdS black hole background.
We employ a thermodynamic analysis to determine the phase structure of Eguchi-Hanson solitons, Schwarzschild-AdS/$\mathbb{Z}_k$ black holes and thermal AdS/$\mathbb{Z}_k$. The Euclidean actions are calculated by two equable means: the first uses the Eguchi-Hanson soliton as the thermal background while the second makes use of minimal boundary counterterms in the action necessary to render individual actions finite. The Euclidean actions are then utilised to determine the phase structure in arbitrary odd dimension; it is found that there is a Hawking-Page phase transition and also a phase trans…
We construct geons starting with gravitational perturbations of the AdS soliton. Previous studies of a charged scalar field in the soliton background showed a holographic insulator/superconductor transition at a critical chemical potential. We explore the possibility that dimensional reduction of the geon could model a transition to a d-wave superconductor. We find that although one does get a charged spin-2 condensate, it has higher free energy than the state without the condensate, so there is no phase transition.
We study both massive and massless particle's geodesic motion in the background of general dimensional AdS-Sol space-time. We find that the massive particles oscillate along the radial direction, while massless particles experience one-time bouncing as they approach the "horizon" line of the soliton. Our results provide a direct way to understand the negative energy/masses leading to the AdS-Sol geometry. As a potential application, we extend the point particle to a 3-brane and fix the background as a 5+1 dimension AdS-Sol, thus obtain a very natural bouncing/cyclic cosmological model.
We point out the existence of some simple string solitons in AdS_5 x S^5, which at the same time are spinning in AdS_5 and pulsating in S^5, or vice-versa. This introduces an additional arbitrary constant into the scaling relations between energy and spin or R-charge. The arbitrary constant is not an angular momentum, but can be related to the amplitude of the pulsation. We discuss the solutions in detail and consider the scaling relations. Pulsating multi spin or multi R-charge solutions can also be constructed.
We construct self-dual string soliton solutions in $AdS_4\times S^7$ spacetime, starting from the covariant equations of motion of M5-brane. We study the properties of the solutions and find that their action are linearized, indicating the BPS nature of the solutions, and they have the same electric and magnetic charge. The straight string soliton solution represents the configuration of the membranes ending on M5-brane with a straight string intersection, and it behaves like the spiky solution in flat spacetime. The spherical string soliton solution, which could be related to the straight one…
We investigate the holographic description of a superconductor constructed in the (2+1)-dimensional AdS soliton background in the probe limit. We study the holographic properties through both analytical and numerical methods. With analytical methods, we are the first to obtain the exact formula for critical phase transition points as $μ_{c}=1+\sqrt{1+m^2}$. Around the transition points, we find a correspondence between the value of the scalar field at the tip and the scalar operator at infinity. We also generalize the front properties to holographic models in higher dimensional AdS soliton spa…
It is known from the work in \cite{Lu:2007bu} of Lu et. al. that the non-supersymmetric charged D3-brane (with anisotropies in time as well as one of the spatial directions of D3-brane) of type IIB string theory is characterized by five independent parameters. By fixing one of the parameters and zooming into a particular region of space-time we construct a four parameter family of solution in AdS$_5$, which interpolates between AdS$_5$ black hole and AdS$_5$ soliton (when one of spatial directions in the Poincare coordinates is compact) by continuously changing the parameters (there is no need…
The AdS soliton is a nonsingular spacetime that has a flat conformal boundary with a compact $S^1$ direction. We find a horizonless cohomogeneity-1 metric that describes nonlinear gravitational oscillations of the AdS soliton in five dimensions. We call this spacetime the resonating AdS soliton. This solution is obtained as the nonlinear extension of normal modes of the AdS soliton dual to spin-2 glueball excitations. The boundary energy momentum tensor of the resonating AdS soliton has time periodic components, and it is interpreted as a coherently excited state in the dual field theory. Phys…
We examine the thermodynamics and stability of 5-dimensional flat anti-de Sitter (AdS) black strings, locally asymptotically anti-de Sitter spacetimes whose spatial sections are AdS black holes with Ricci flat horizons. We find that there is a phase transition for the flat AdS black string when the AdS soliton string is chosen as the thermal background. We find that this bulk phase transition corresponds to a 4-dimensional flat AdS black hole to AdS soliton phase transition on the boundary Karch-Randall branes. We compute the possibility of a phase transition from a flat AdS black string to a …
A formalism is presented for computing the higher-order corrections to the worldvolume action of co-dimension one solitons. By modifying its potential, an explicit "kink" solution of a real scalar field in AdS spacetime is found. The formalism is then applied to explicitly compute the kink worldvolume action to quadratic order in two expansion parameters--associated with the hypersurface fluctuation length and the radius of AdS spacetime respectively. Two alternative methods are given for doing this. The results are expressed in terms of the trace of the extrinsic curvature and the intrinsic s…
We derive an exact string-like soliton solution of D=10 heterotic string theory. The solution possesses $SU(2)\times SU(2)$ instanton structure in the eight-dimensional space transverse to the worldsheet of the soliton.
In this paper we interpret the hidden symmetry of the moduli space of IIB superstring on $AdS_{5}\times S^{5}$ in terms of the chiral embedding in $AdS_{5}$, which turns to be the $\mathbb{CP}^{3}$ conformal affine Toda model. We review how the position $μ$ of poles in the Riemann-Hilbert formulation of dressing transformation and how the value of loop parameters $μ$ in the vertex operator of affine algebra determines the moduli space of the soliton solutions, which describes the moduli space of the Green-Schwarz superstring. We show also how this affine SU(4) symmetry affinize the conformal s…
We compute the metric on moduli space for the Dabholkar-Harvey string soliton in $D=4$ to lowest nontrivial order in the string tension. The metric is found to be flat, which implies trivial scattering of the solitons. This result is consistent with an earlier test-string calculation of the leading order dynamical force and a computation of the Veneziano amplitude for the scattering of macroscopic strings.
We study dual geometries to a deformed ABJM model with spatially dependent source functions at finite temperature. These source functions are proportional to the mass function $m(x)= m_0 \sin k x$ and its derivative $m'(x)$. As dual geometries, we find hairy black branes and AdS solitons corresponding to deconfinement phase and confining phase of the dual field theory, respectively. It turns out that the hairy AdS solitons have lower free energy than the black branes when the Hawking temperature is smaller than the confining scale. Therefore the dual system undergoes the first order phase tran…
We compute the entropy and the corresponding central charge of the self-dual string soliton in the supergravity regime using the blackfold description of the fully localized M2-M5 intersection.
We begin a search for nonsupersymmetric/supersymmetric dual string pairs by constructing candidate critical nonsupersymmetric strings as solitons in supersymmetric string theories. Using orbifold techniques, one can construct cosmic string solutions which lie in supersymmetric vacua but which do not fall in supermultiplets. We discuss two three-dimensional examples in detail. The effective worldsheet actions for the soliton strings have (0,2) and (1,1) supersymmetry and the correct numbers of massless bosons and fermions to be critical heterotic and type II strings, respectively.
We continue to study the holographic p-wave superconductor model in the Einstein-Maxwell-complex vector field theory with a non-minimal coupling between the complex vector field and the Maxwell field. In this paper we work in the AdS soliton background which describes a conformal field theory in the confined phase and focus on the probe approximation. We find that an applied magnetic field can lead to the condensate of the vector field and the AdS soliton instability. As a result, a vortex lattice structure forms in the spatial directions perpendicular to the applied magnetic field. As a compa…
We discuss fluctuations on solitons in the dilaton/graviton/tachyon system using the low energy effective field theory approach. It is shown that closed string solitons are free of tachyons in this approximation, regardless of the exact shape of the tachyon potential.
We investigate the behaviors of holographic entanglement entropy for AdS soliton geometries in the presence of higher derivative corrections. We calculate the leading higher derivative corrections for the AdS5 setup in type IIB string and for the AdS4,7 ones in M-theory. We also study the holographic entanglement entropy in Gauss-Bonnet gravity and study how the confinement/deconfinement phase transition observed in AdS solitons is affected by the higher derivative corrections.
We study the combinatorics of solitons in $D<2$ (or $c<1$) string theory. The weights in the summation over multi-solitons are shown to be automatically determined if we further require that the partition function with soliton background be a $τ$ function of the KP hierarchy, in addition to the $W_{1+\infty}$ constraint.
We use a mix of analytic and numerical methods to exhaustively study a class of asymptotically global AdS solitons and hairy black hole solutions in negative cosmological constant Einstein Maxwell gravity coupled to a charged massless scalar field. Our results depend sensitively on the charge 'e' of the scalar field. The solitonic branch of solutions we study hit the Chandrashekhar limit at finite mass at small 'e', but extends to arbitrarily large mass at larger 'e'. At low values of 'e' no hairy black holes exist. At intermediate values of 'e' hairy black holes exist above a critical charge.…
We construct supersymmetric, asymptotically AdS$_5$ gravitational soliton solutions of five-dimensional gauged supergravity coupled to arbitrarily many vector multiplets. These generalize the supersymmetric solitons of $U(1)^3$ gauged supergravity previously constructed by Chong, Cvetic, Lu, and Pope. We show that the solitons contain evanescent ergosurfaces and give an argument that these solitons should be nonlinearly unstable.
We consider the four-dimensional Einstein-Klein-Gordon-AdS system with conformal mass subject to the Robin boundary conditions at infinity. Above a critical value of the Robin parameter, at which the AdS spacetime goes linearly unstable, we prove existence of a family of globally regular static solutions (that we call AdS Robin solitons) and discuss their properties.
We discuss some recent work in the field of classical solitonic solutions in string theory. In particular, we construct instanton and monopole solutions and discuss the dynamics of string-like solitons. Some of the motivation behind this work is that instantons may provide a nonperturbative understanding of the vacuum structure of string theory, while monopoles may appear in string predictions for grand unification. The string-like solitons represent extended states of fundamental strings. The essential role of supersymmetry in both the saturation of the Bogomol'nyi bound and in the cancellati…
This is a transcript of lectures given at the Sixth Jorge Andre Swieca Summer School in Theoretical Physics. The subject of these lectures is soliton solutions of string theory. We construct a class of exact conformal field theories possessing a spacetime soliton or instanton interpretation and present a preliminary discussion of their physical properties.
We explicitly construct soliton operators in $D<2$ (or $c<1$) string theory, and show that the Schwinger-Dyson equations allow solutions with these solitons as backgrounds. The dominant contributions from 1-soliton background are explicitly evaluated in the weak coupling limit, and shown to agree with the nonperturbative analysis of string equations. We suggest that fermions should be treated as fundamental dynamical variables since both macroscopic loops and solitons are constructed in their bilinear forms.
We have numerically calculated topological andnon-topological solitons in two spatial dimensions with Chern-Simons term. Their quantum stability, as well as that of the Maxwell vortex, is analyzed by means of bounce instantons which involve three-dimensional strings and non-topological solitons.
We study soliton gauge states in the spectrum of bosonic string compatified on torus. The enhenced Kac-Moody gauge symmetry, and thus T-duality, is shown to be related to the existence of these soliton gauge states in some moduli points.
We consider generalized self-duality equations for U(2r) Yang-Mills theory on R^8 with quaternionic structure. We employ the extended ADHM method in eight dimensions to construct exact soliton solutions of the low-energy effective theory of the heterotic string.
The interpretation of closed fundamental strings as solitons in open string field theory is reviewed. Noncommutativity is introduced to facilitate an explicit construction. The tension is computed exactly and the correct spectrum is recovered at long wave length.
These lectures are intended as an introduction to some of the basic aspects of string solitons, duality and black holes. We begin with a discussion of the role of classical solutions in duality, then focus on string/string duality and fundamental membranes. Finally, we examine the feature of compositeness of string solitons, and its implications for bound states and black hole thermodynamics. As these lectures are aimed primarily at those less familiar with this field, technical details are minimized.
We find new explicit solutions describing closed strings spinning with equal angular momentum in two independent planes in AdS(5). These are 2N-folded strings in the radial direction and also winding M times around an angular direction. Thus in spacetime they consist of 2N segments. Solutions fulfilling the closed string periodicity conditions exist provided N/M>2, i.e. the strings must be folded at least six times in the radial coordinate. The strings are spinning, or actually orbiting, similarly to solutions found previously in black hole spacetimes, but unlike the one-spin solutions in AdS …
We construct exact hairy AdS soliton solutions in Einstein-dilaton gravity theory. We examine their thermodynamic properties and discuss the role of these solutions for the existence of first order phase transitions for hairy black holes. The negative energy density associated to hairy AdS solitons can be interpreted as the Casimir energy that is generated in the dual filed theory when the fermions are antiperiodic on the compact coordinate.
The dynamics of a class of fivebrane string solitons is considered in the moduli space approximation. The metric on moduli space is found to be flat. This implies that at low energies the solitons do not interact, and their scattering is trivial. The range of validity of the approximation is also briefly discussed.
We derive and analyse, analytically and numerically, the equations for perturbations around the pulsating two-spin string soliton in AdS(5) x S(5).We show that the pulsation in S(5) indeed improves the stability properties of the two-spin string soliton in AdS(5), in the sense that the more pulsation we have, the higher spin we can allow and still have stability.
The tachyon field of p-adic string theory is made noncommutative by replacing ordinary products with noncommutative products in its exact effective action. The same is done for the boundary string field theory, treated as the p -> 1 limit of the p-adic string. Solitonic lumps corresponding to D-branes are obtained for all values of the noncommutative parameter theta. This is in contrast to usual scalar field theories in which the noncommutative solitons do not persist below a critical value of theta. As theta varies from zero to infinity, the solution interpolates smoothly between the soliton …
In presence of string solitons, index theorems for the generalised Dirac operators have to be revisited. We show that in supersymmetric configurations the fermionic operators decouple, so that there are no mixing effects between different fermions in the index theorems. We extend the index theorems in presence of torsion to the generic case of manifolds with boundary, which naturally appear in string solutions and apply this result to the soliton solution by Callan, Harvey and Strominger.
We present qualitative evidence that closed string tachyon solitons describe backgrounds of lower-dimensional sub-critical string theory. We show that a co-dimension one soliton in the low energy effective gravity-dilaton-tachyon theory in general has a flat string-frame metric, and a dilaton that grows in both directions away from the core, and is linear in the soliton worldvolume coordinates. Spacetime, as seen in the Einstein frame, is therefore effectively localized in (D-1)-dimensions, in which the dilaton is linear, in agreement with the linear dilaton background of the (D-1)-dimensional…
These notes are based on lectures given by C. Callan and J. Harvey at the 1991 Trieste Spring School on String Theory and Quantum Gravity. The subject is the construction of supersymmetric soliton solutions to superstring theory. A brief review of solitons and instantons in supersymmetric theories is presented. Yang-Mills instantons are then used to construct soliton solutions to heterotic string theory of various types. The structure of these solutions is discussed using low-energy field theory, sigma-model arguments, and in one case an exact construction of the underlying superconformal fiel…
We study the mechanism of enhanced gauge symmetry of bosonic open string compatified on torus by analyzing the zero-norm soliton (nonzero winding of wilson line) gauge states in the spectrum. Unlike the closed string case, we find that the soliton gauge state exists only at massive levels. These soliton gauge states correspond to the existence of enhanced massive gauge symmetries with transformation parameters containing both Einstein and Yang-Mills indices. In the T-dual picture, these symmetries exist only at some discrete values of compatified radii when N D-branes are coincident.
We argue that having an odd number of Majorana fermion zero modes on a dynamical point-like soliton signifies an inconsistency in a theory with 3+1 and higher dimensions. We check this statement in a couple of examples in field theory and in string/M theory.
We discuss the role of string solitons in duality and examine the feature of compositeness, which allows for the interpretation of general solutions as bound states of supersymmetric fundamental constituents. This feature lies at the heart of the recent success of string theory in reproducing the Bekenstein-Hawking black hole entropy formula. Talk given at 19th annual MRST meeting, Syracuse, NY, May 12-13, 1997.
It is shown that the heterotic string emerges as a soliton in the type I superstring theory in ten dimensions. The collective coordinates of the soliton are described by a smooth, chiral worldsheet theory. There are eight bosonic and eight right-moving fermionic zero modes that arise from the partially broken supertranslations. In addition, there are 496 charged bosonic zero modes of the gauge field that describe a left-moving WZNW model on a $spin(32)/{Z_2}$ group manifold. Small, stable loops of the solitonic string furnish the massive states required by duality that transform as spinors of …
We look for soliton solutions in $c=0$ noncritical string field theory constructed by the authors and collaborators. It is shown that the string field action itself is very complicated in our formalism but it satisfies a very simple equation. We derive an equation which a solution to the equation of motion should satisfy. Using this equation, we conjecture the form of a soliton solution which is responsible for the nonperturbative effects of order $e^{-A/κ}$. (Talk given by N.I. at ``Inauguration Conference of APCTP'', 4-10 June, 1996)
We consider the holographic complexity conjectures in the context of the AdS soliton, which is the holographic dual of the ground state of a field theory on a torus with antiperiodic boundary conditions for fermions on one cycle. The complexity is a non-trivial function of the size of the circle with antiperiodic boundary conditions, which sets an IR scale in the dual geometry. We find qualitative differences between the calculations of complexity from spatial volume and action (CV and CA). In the CV calculation, the complexity for antiperiodic boundary conditions is smaller than for periodic,…
We obtain a BPS soliton of the M theory fivebrane's equations of motion representing a supersymmetric self-dual string. The resulting solution is then dimensionally reduced and used to obtain 0-brane and (p-2)-brane solitons on D-p-branes.
It is shown that a renormalizable nonlinear sigma model gives rise to the effective string theory proposed by Polchinski and Strominger. In the presence of long string background, the model contains massive world-sheet degrees of freedom owing to the spontaneous breaking of conformal invariance.
In this work we study the phase transitions between the planar charged AdS black hole and the planar charged soliton. The planar soliton is obtained as a double analytic continuation of the charged black hole metric, which also involves analytically continuing the electric charge. We show that there are phase transitions between both solutions depending on the electric potential, magnetic flux and temperature. The analysis is carried out in the Grand-Canonical ensemble.
It is shown that the Type IIA superstring compactified on $K3$ has a smooth string soliton with the same zero mode structure as the heterotic string compactified on a four torus, thus providing new evidence for a conjectured exact duality between the two six-dimensional string theories. The chiral worldsheet bosons arise as zero modes of Ramond-Ramond fields of the IIA string theory and live on a signature $(20,4)$ even, self-dual lattice. Stable, finite loops of soliton string provide the charged Ramond-Ramond states necessary for enhanced gauge symmetries at degeneration points of the $K3$ s…
We present a brief survey of the results of the Theory of Solitons from the viewpoint of the periodic theory including some new results in the theory of 2-dimensional periodic Schrodinger Operators. The main subjects are: Periodic Solitons and Algebraic Geometry, The Theory of Solitons and the String equation, Topologically trivial and nontrivial periodic two-dimensional Schrodinger operators and Riemann surfaces and Cyclic and semicyclic chains of Laplace transformations (new results of the present author and A.Veselov).
The non-commutative geometry of a large auxiliary $B$-field simplifies the construction of D-branes as solitons in open string field theory. Similarly, fundamental strings are constructed as localized flux tubes in the string field theory. Tensions are determined exactly using general properties of non-BPS branes, and the non-Abelian structure of gauge fields on coincident D-branes is recovered.
We present new classes of string-like soliton solutions in ($N=1$; $D=10$), ($N=2$; $D=6$) and ($N=4$; $D=4$) heterotic string theory. Connections are made between the solution-generating subgroup of the $T$-duality group of the compactification and the number of spacetime supersymmetries broken. Analogous solutions are also noted in ($N=1,2$; $D=4$) compactifications, where a different form of supersymmetry breaking arises.
We review the semiclassical analysis of strings in AdS5xS5 with a focus on the relationship to the underlying integrable structures. We discuss the perturbative calculation of energies for strings with large charges, using the folded string spinning in an AdS3 subset of AdS5 as our main example. Furthermore, we review the perturbative light-cone quantization of the string theory and the calculation of the worldsheet S-matrix.
We discuss electrostatics in Anti-de-Sitter ($AdS$) spacetime, in global coordinates. We observe that the multipolar expansion has two crucial differences to that in Minkowski spacetime. First, there are everywhere regular solutions, with finite energy, for every multipole moment except for the monopole. Second, all multipole moments decay with the same inverse power of the areal radius, $1/r$, as spatial infinity is approached. The first observation suggests there may be regular, self-gravitating, Einstein-Maxwell solitons in $AdS$ spacetime. The second observation, renders a Lichnerowicz-typ…
In this letter we study a coupled system of six-dimensional N=1 tensor and super Yang-Mills multiplets. We identify some of the solitonic states of this system which exhibit stringy behaviour in six dimensions. A discussion of the supercharges and energy for the tensor multiplet as well as zero modes is also given. We speculate about the possible relationship between our solution and what is known as tensionless strings.
This is a summary of a series of papers hep-th/9910263,0005283,0010066 written with B. Chen, T. Matsuo and K. Murakami on a p-p', (p<p^{\prime}) open string with B_{ij} field, which has led us to the explicit identification of the Dp-brane with the noncommutative projector soliton via the gaussian damping factor. A lecture given at Summer Institute 2000, FujiYoshida, Yamanashi, Japan, at August 7-14, 2000.
