The membrane paradigm approach to black hole physics introduces the notion of a stretched horizon as a fictitious time-like surface endowed with physical characteristics such as entropy, viscosity and electrical conductivity. We show that certain properties of the stretched horizons are encoded in the quasinormal spectrum of black holes. We compute analytically the lowest quasinormal frequency of a vector-type perturbation for a generic black hole with a translationally invariant horizon (black brane) in terms of the background metric components. The resulting dispersion relation is identical to the one obtained in the membrane paradigm treatment of the diffusion on stretched horizons. Combined with the Buchel-Liu universality theorem for the membrane's diffusion coefficient, our result means that in the long wavelength limit the black brane spectrum of gravitational perturbations exhibits a universal, purely imaginary quasinormal frequency. In the context of gauge-gravity duality, this provides yet another (third) proof of the universality of shear viscosity to entropy density ratio in theories with gravity duals.
Black hole membrane paradigm states that a certain viscous membrane seems to be sitting on a stretched horizon of a black hole from the viewpoint of a distant observer. We show that the shear viscosity of the fictitious membrane can be reproduced by a highly excited string covering the stretched horizon except for a numerical coefficient.
It was shown in arXiv:2006.16163 that the effective stationary membrane equations from the large $D$ membrane paradigm at the first order admit black ring solutions in flat and AdS cases, but the de Sitter solution obtained in arXiv:0806.1954 lies outside the domain of their applicability. In this short note the static de Sitter black ring is obtained from the second order membrane paradigm, and it satisfies the equilibrium condition for the thin ring solution of arXiv:0806.1954. This provides a segue into the stationary black rings at the second order.
I discuss a correspondence between string theory and the black hole membrane paradigm in the context of the D1-D5-P system. By using the Kubo formula, I calculate transport coefficients of the effective string model induced by two kinds of minimal scalars. Then, I show that these transport coefficients exactly agree with the corresponding membrane transport coefficients of a five-dimensional near-extremal black hole with three charges.
We obtain the relaxation time for the shear viscous stress for various geometries using the "membrane paradigm" formula proposed recently. We consider the generic Schwarzschild-AdS black holes (SAdS), the generic Dp-brane, the Klebanov-Tseytlin (KT) geometry, and the N=2* theory. The formula is the "shear mode" result and is not fully trustable, but it may be helpful to learn some generic behaviors about the relaxation time. For example, a simple formula summarizes all known results for SAdS, and a single expression summarizes the results for the Dp-brane and the KT geometry.
It has recently been shown that the dynamics of black holes in large number of dimensions D can be recast as the dynamics of a probe membrane propagating in the background spacetime which solves Einstein equations without matter. The equations of motion of this membrane are simply the statement of conservation of the stress tensor and charge current defined on this membrane. In this paper we obtain the effective equations of motion for stationary membranes in any empty background both in presence and absence of charge. It turns out that the thermodynamic quantities associated with the stationa…
We study the effective dynamics of black hole horizons in Einstein-Maxwell theory in a large number of spacetime dimensions $D$. We demonstrate that horizon dynamics may be recast as a well posed initial value problem for the motion of a codimension one non gravitational membrane moving in flat space. The dynamical degrees of freedom of this membrane are its shape, charge density and a divergence free velocity field. We determine the equations that govern membrane dynamics at leading order in the large $D$ expansion. Our derivation of the membrane equations assumes that the solution preserves …
In this paper we analyze the effect of the massive deformation of the ABJM model on the calculation of conductivity of the dual theory. We show that some of the difficulties presented by the dual geometry, in particular the construction of black holes therein, can be at least partially circumvented by adopting a membrane paradigm-like computation of the conductivity, which requires us to know just the effect of the deformation on the {\it horizon} of a black hole in AdS${}_{4}$. The deformation at the horizon itself is found by first deforming the flat space near the horizon, and then using th…
Black hole membrane paradigm suggests to consider the black hole horizon as a fluid membrane. The membrane has a particular energy-momentum tensor which characterizes the interactions with the falling matter. In this paper, we show that we can construct an action from the scalar field on the horizon which can give the same energy-momentum tensor for the membrane. That is, the membrane can be described effectively by the scalar field on it.
Holographic RG flows can be better understood with the help of radially conserved charges. It was shown by various authors that the bulk gauge and diffeomorphism symmetries lead to the conservation of the zero mode of the holographic U(1) current and, if the spacetime is stationary, to that of the holographic heat current. In describing dual theories with t Hooft anomalies the bulk gauge invariance is broken by Chern-Simons terms. We show that conservation laws can still be derived and used to characterize the anomalous transport in terms of membrane currents at the horizon. We devote particul…
We formulate a holographic Wilsonian renormalization group flow for strongly coupled systems with a gravity dual, motivated by the need to extract efficiently low energy behavior of such systems. Starting with field theories defined on a cut-off surface in a bulk spacetime, we propose that integrating out high energy modes in the field theory should correspond to integrating out a part of the bulk geometry. We describe how to carry out this procedure in practice in the classical gravity approximation using examples of scalar and vector fields. By integrating out bulk degrees of freedom all the…
To an outside observer, a black hole's event horizon appears to behave exactly like a dynamical fluid membrane. We extend this membrane paradigm to black holes in general $f(R)$ theories of gravity. We derive the stress tensor and various transport coefficients of the fluid and find that the membrane behaves as a non-Newtonian fluid except for the special case of Einstein gravity. Using Euclidean methods, we study the thermodynamics of the membrane. We speculate on what theories of gravity admit horizons with fluid properties.
In this paper we aim to provide new examples of the application and the generality of the membrane paradigm. The membrane paradigm is a formalism for studying the event horizon of black holes. After analyzing it with some technical details and realizing it in the Reissner-Nordstrom black hole, we apply the paradigm to cosmological horizons, firstly to the pure de Sitter horizon, and then to the trapping horizon of the Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker universe. In the latter case, the cosmological stretched horizon is oblique, thus the running of renormalization parameter is nonzero in the t…
A classical membrane model is developed for a dynamic wormhole. Its throat expands hyperbolically with an acceleration proportional to the surface energy density $σ$. The model leads to a negative bulk viscosity coefficient $ζ= - 1/6 π$ on the throat, expressing the instability against perturbations (expansions or contractions).
The membrane paradigm posits that black hole microstates are dynamical degrees of freedom associated with a physical membrane vanishingly close to the black hole's event horizon. The soft hair paradigm postulates that black holes can be equipped with zero-energy charges associated with residual diffeomorphisms that label near horizon degrees of freedom. In this essay we argue that the latter paradigm implies the former. More specifically, we exploit suitable near horizon boundary conditions that lead to an algebra of `soft hair charges' containing infinite copies of the Heisenberg algebra, ass…
Black rings are the black objects found in $D$ spacetime dimensional gravity when $D \geq 5$. These have event horizon topology $S^{D-3}\times S^1$. In this work the solutions of the large $D$ membrane paradigm dual to stationary black rings in Einstein-Maxwell theory with or without cosmological constant are studied. It is shown that the first order membrane equations can only admit static asymptotically flat black rings, and the equilibrium angular velocity for the asymptotically AdS black rings at large $D$ was obtained. The thermodynamic and dynamic stability of the asymptotically flat bla…
Are there any degrees of freedom on the black hole horizon? Using the `membrane paradigm' we can reproduce coarse-grained physics outside the hole by assuming a fictitious membrane just outside the horizon. But to solve the information puzzle we need `real' degrees of freedom at the horizon, which can modify Hawking's evolution of quantum modes. We argue that recent results on gravitational microstates imply a set of real degrees of freedom just outside the horizon; the state of the hole is a linear combination of rapidly oscillating gravitational solutions with support concentrated just outsi…
We discuss recent work showing that in certain cases the membrane paradigm equations governing the dynamics of black hole horizons can be recast as relativistic conservation law equations. In the context of gauge/gravity dualities, these equations are interpreted as defining the viscous hydrodynamics of a holographically dual relativistic field theory. Using this approach, one can derive the viscous transport coefficients and the form of the entropy current for field theories dual to gravity plus matter fields.
We find the membrane equations which describe the leading order in $1/D$ dynamics of black holes in the $D\rightarrow\infty$ limit for the most general four-derivative theory of gravity in the presence of a cosmological constant. We work up to linear order in the parameter determining the strength of the four-derivative corrections to the gravity action and hence there are no ghost modes in the theory. We find that the effective membrane equations we obtain are the covariant version of the membrane equations in absence of the cosmological constant. We also find the world-volume stress tensor f…
In the large D limit, and under certain circumstances, it has recently been demonstrated that black hole dynamics in asymptotically flat spacetime reduces to the dynamics of a non gravitational membrane propagating in flat D dimensional spacetime. We demonstrate that this correspondence extends to all orders in a 1/D expansion and outline a systematic method for deriving the corrected membrane equation in a power series expansion in 1/D. As an illustration of our method we determine the first subleading corrections to the membrane equations of motion. A qualitatively new effect at this order i…
One version of the membrane paradigm states that as far as outside observers are concerned, black holes can be replaced by a dissipative membrane with simple physical properties located at the stretched horizon. We demonstrate that such a membrane paradigm is incomplete in several aspects. We argue that it generically fails to capture the massive quasinormal modes, unless we replace the stretched horizon by the exact event horizon, and illustrate this with a scalar field in a BTZ black hole background. We also consider as a concrete example linearized metric perturbations of a five-dimensional…
We find the equations of motion of membranes dual to the black holes in Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet (EGB) gravity to leading order in 1/D in the large D regime. We also find the metric solutions to the EGB equations to first subleading order in 1/D in terms of membrane variables. We propose a world volume stress tensor for the membrane whose conservation equations are equivalent to the leading order membrane equations. We also work out the light quasi-normal mode spectrum of static black holes in EGB gravity from the linearised fluctuations of static, round membranes. Also, the effective equations f…
I discuss a correspondence between a fictitious fluid in the black hole membrane paradigm and highly excited closed string states according to the black hole correspondence principle. I calculate the membrane transport coefficients of an electric NS-NS 2-charged black hole and transport coefficients of the highly excited closed string states which possess a Kaluza-Klein number and a winding number. Comparing both the transport coefficients at the correspondence point, I show that, except for the bulk viscosity, the membrane transport coefficients are of the same order as the transport coeffici…
The Bondi-van der Burg-Metzner-Sachs (BMS) group is the asymptotic symmetry group of asymptotically flat spacetime. It is infinite dimensional and entails an infinite number of conservation laws. According to the black hole membrane paradigm, null infinity (in asymptotically flat spacetime) and black hole event horizons behave like fluid membranes. The fluid dynamics of the membrane is governed by an infinite set of symmetries and conservation laws. Our main result is to point out that the infinite set of symmetries and conserved charges of the BMS group and the membrane paradigm are the same.…
We study $SO(d+1)$ invariant solutions of the classical vacuum Einstein equations in $p+d+3$ dimensions. In the limit $d \to \infty$ with $p$ held fixed we construct a class of solutions labelled by the shape of a membrane (the event horizon), together with a `velocity' field that lives on this membrane. We demonstrate that our metrics can be corrected to nonsingular solutions at first sub-leading order in $\frac{1}{d}$ if and only if the membrane shape and `velocity' field obey equations of motion which we determine. These equations define a well posed initial value problem for the membrane s…
The membrane paradigm approach adopts a timelike surface, stretched out off the null event horizon, to study several important black hole properties. We use this powerful tool to give a direct derivation of the black hole mass formula in the static and stationary cases without and with electric field. Since here the membrane is a self-gravitating material system we go beyond the usual applicability on test particles and test fields of the paradigm.
We consider a BMS-type symmetry action on isolated horizons in asymptotically flat spacetimes. From the viewpoint of the non-relativistic field theory on a horizon membrane, supertranslations shift the field theory spatial momentum. The latter is related by a Ward identity to the particle number symmetry current and is spontaneously broken. The corresponding Goldstone boson shifts the horizon angular momentum and can be detected quantum mechanically. Similarly, area preserving superrotations are spontaneously broken on the horizon membrane and we identify the corresponding gapless modes. In as…
Correspondences between black holes and fluids have been discussed in two different frameworks, the Fluid/Gravity correspondence and membrane paradigm. Recently, it has been discussed that these two theories can be understood as the same theory if the cutoff surface is placed slightly outside the horizon. The bulk viscosity is different for these two theories, but it does not contribute to physics since the fluid becomes incompressible in the near horizon limit. In the AdS/CFT correspondence, it is known that the fluid becomes compressible and the bulk viscosity is zero, apart from the near ho…
The membrane paradigm approach to black holes fixes in the vicinity of the event horizon a fictitious surface, the stretched horizon, so that the spacetime outside remains unchanged and the spacetime inside is vacuum. Using this powerful method, several black hole properties have been found and settled, such as the horizon's viscosity, electrical conductivity, resistivity, as well as other properties. On the other hand the Euclidean action approach to black hole spacetimes has been very fruitful in understanding black hole entropy. Combining both the Euclidean action and membrane paradigm appr…
Membrane paradigm is a powerful tool to study properties of black hole horizons. We first explore the properties of the nonlinear electromagnetic membrane of black holes. For a general nonlinear electrodynamics field, we show that the conductivities of the horizon usually have off-diagonal components and depend on the normal electric and magnetic fields on the horizon. Via the holographic duality, we find a model-independent expression for the holographic DC conductivities of the conserved current dual to a probe nonlinear electrodynamics field in a neutral and static black brane background. I…
Following the Membrane Paradigm, we show that the stretched horizon of a black hole retains information about particles thrown into the hole for a time of order the scrambling time m ln(m/M_P), after the particles cross the horizon. One can, for example, read off the proper time at which a particle anti-particle pair thrown into the hole, annihilates behind the horizon, if this time is less than the scrambling time. If we believe that the Schwarzschild geometry exterior to the horizon is a robust thermodynamic feature of the quantum black hole, independent of whether it is newly formed, or has…
We study the membrane paradigm for horizons in Lanczos-Lovelock models of gravity in arbitrary D dimensions and find compact expressions for the pressure p and viscosity coefficients ηand ζof the membrane fluid. We show that the membrane pressure is intimately connected with the Noether charge entropy S_Wald of the horizon when we consider a specific m-th order Lanczos-Lovelock model, through the relation pA/T=(D-2m)/(D-2)S_Wald, where T is the temperature and A is the area of the horizon. Similarly, the viscosity coefficients are expressible in terms of entropy and quasi-local energy associat…
We calculate the contributions to the one-loop determinant for transverse traceless gravitons in an $n+3$-dimensional Schwarzschild black hole background in the large dimension limit, due to the $SO(n+2)$-type tensor and vector fluctuations, using the quasinormal mode method. Accordingly we find the quasinormal modes for these fluctuations as a function of a fiducial mass parameter $Δ$. We show that the behavior of the one-loop determinant at large $Δ$ accords with a heat kernel curvature expansion in one lower dimension, lending further evidence towards a membrane picture for black holes in t…
We consider the membrane viewpoint a là Parikh-Wilczek on the Kerr solution for a rotating black hole. Computing the stress-energy tensor of a close-to-the-horizon stretched membrane and comparing it to the stress-tensor of a viscous fluid, we recover transport coefficients in terms of the Kerr geometry. Viscosities of the dual fluid remain constant, while the rest of the transport coefficients become complex functions of radial and angle coordinates. We study the qualitative behavior of the pressure, expansion, and energy/momentum densities for two specific black holes: the slowly rotating bl…
The Darboux-Halphen system of equations have common or individual additive terms depending on the matrices defining Yang-Mills gauge potential fields. Tod (Phys. Lett. A 190 (1994) 221-224), described a conserved quantity for the classical systems with no additive terms. We show that the conserved quantity apply even for the generalized cases with common additive terms. A theory has been presented, with an example, of how to formulate conserved quantities for equation with individual additive terms. We also briefly shed some light on the issues of surface motions of fluids in conncetion to Nah…
We show that at the level of linear response the low frequency limit of a strongly coupled field theory at finite temperature is determined by the horizon geometry of its gravity dual, i.e. by the "membrane paradigm" fluid of classical black hole mechanics. Thus generic boundary theory transport coefficients can be expressed in terms of geometric quantities evaluated at the horizon. When applied to the stress tensor this gives a simple, general proof of the universality of the shear viscosity in terms of the universality of gravitational couplings, and when applied to a conserved current it gi…
We study the effective geometry felt by the fluctuations of open strings living on the worldvolume of probe D-branes in the presence of background electromagnetic fields. This is captured by an effective action consisting of a Maxwell term and a topological term, with the role of the metric played by the open string metric. Studying generalized Eddington-Finkelstein coordinates for stationary but non-static manifolds, we consider an open string membrane paradigm to obtain a generic formula for the DC transport coefficients, including the effect of external electromagnetic fields present on the…
Cosmological hysteresis is a purely thermodynamical phenomenon caused by the gradient in pressure, hence the characteristic equation of state during the expansion and contraction phases of the universe are different, provided that the universe bounces and recollapses. During hysteresis pressure asymmetry is created due to the presence of a single scalar field in the dynamical process. Also such an interesting scenario has vivid implications in cosmology when applied to variants of modified gravity models described within the framework of membrane paradigm. Cyclic universe along with scalar fie…
We calculate the ratio of shear viscosity to entropy density for a black brane of $5$-dimensional Einstein-Yang-Mills Gravity by Kubo and membrane paradigm methods. The former gives $\frac{1}{4π}$ exactly which is an expected result in the context of the Einstein-Hilbert gravity. In contrast, the membrane paradigm reaches $\frac{1}{4π}$ only in large horizon radius limit. We comment on this discrepancy.
Following the membrane paradigm, we explore the effect of the gravitational $Θ$-term on the behavior of the stretched horizon of a black hole in (3+1)-dimensions. We reformulate the membrane paradigm from a quantum path-integral point of view where we interpret the macroscopic properties of the horizon as effects of integrating out the region inside the horizon. The gravitational $Θ$-term is a total derivative, however, using our framework we show that this term affects the transport properties of the horizon. In particular, the horizon acquires a third order parity violating, dimensionless tr…
The membrane paradigm is the remarkable view that, to an external observer, a black hole appears to behave exactly like a dynamical fluid membrane, obeying such pre-relativistic equations as Ohm's law and the Navier-Stokes equation. It has traditionally been derived by manipulating the equations of motion. Here we provide an action formulation of this picture, clarifying what underlies the paradigm, and simplifying the derivations. Within this framework, we derive previous membrane results, and extend them to dyonic black hole solutions. We discuss how it is that an action can produce dissipat…
We use the membrane paradigm to analyze the horizon dynamics of a uniformly boosted black brane in a (d+2)-dimensional asymptotically Anti-de-Sitter space-time and a Rindler acceleration horizon in (d+2)-dimensional Minkowski space-time. We show that in these cases the horizon dynamics is governed by the relativistic CFT hydrodynamics equations. The fluid velocity and temperature correspond to the normal to the horizon and to the surface gravity, respectively. The second law of thermodynamics for the fluid is mapped into the area increase theorem of General Relativity. The analysis is applicab…
We study the relations between two different approaches to the holographic Renormalization Group (RG) flow at the dual gravity level: One is the radial evolution of the classical equation of motion and the other is the flow equation given by the holographic Wilsonian RG coming from the cut off independence. Apparently, the two flows look different. We give general proofs that the two flows are actually equivalent. The role of the momentum continuity (MC) is essential. We show that MC together with cutoff independence gives the evolution equation of the boundary values. Equivalence of conductiv…
The asymptotic symmetry group of three-dimensional (anti) de Sitter space is the two dimensional conformal group with central charge $c=3\ell/2G$. Usually the asymptotic charge algebra is derived using the symplectic structure of the bulk Einstein equations. Here, we derive the asymptotic charge algebra by a different route. First, we formulate the dynamics of the boundary as a 1+1-dimensional dynamical system. Then we realize the boundary equations of motion as a Hamiltonian system on the dual Lie algebra, $\mathfrak{g}^*$, of the two-dimensional conformal group. Finally, we use the Lie-Poiss…
This talk gives an overview of the recently-formulated Fluid/Gravity correspondence, which was developed in the context of gauge/gravity duality. Mathematically, it posits that Einstein's equations (with negative cosmological constant) in d+1 dimensions capture the (generalized) Navier-Stokes equations in d dimensions. Given an arbitrary fluid dynamical solution, we can systematically construct a corresponding asymptotically AdS black hole spacetime with a regular horizon whose properties mimic that of the fluid flow. Apart from an overview of this construction, we describe some of its applica…
Several general arguments indicate that the event horizon behaves as a stretched membrane. We propose using this relation to understand gravity and dynamics of black objects in higher dimensions. We provide evidence that (i) the gravitational Gregory-Laflamme instability has a classical counterpart in the Rayleigh-Plateau instability of fluids. Each known feature of the gravitational instability can be accounted for in the fluid model. These features include threshold mode, dispersion relation, time evolution and critical dimension of certain phase transitions. Thus, we argue that black string…
In this article, we have studied the cosmological and particle physics constraints on dark matter relic abundance from effective field theory of inflation using tensor-to-scalar ratio ($r$), in case of Randall-Sundrum single membrane (RSII) paradigm. Using semi-analytical approach we establish a direct connection between the dark matter relic abundance ($Ω_{DM}h^2$) and primordial gravity waves ($r$), which establishes a precise connection between inflation and generation of dark matter within the framework of effective field theory in RSII membrane. Further assuming the UV completeness of the…
This thesis addresses some classical and semi-classical aspects of black holes using an effective membrane representation of the event horizon. The classical "membrane paradigm" equations are derived from an underlying action formulation, even though the equations are dissipative. It is shown how the membrane action can also account for the hole's entropy, including the numerical factor. Two short derivations of Hawking radiation are then presented, the first based on particles in a dynamical geometry and the second on the membrane. The calculations obey conservation laws and lead to a correct…
In the context of the so called ``membrane paradigm'' of black holes/branes, it has been known for sometime that the dynamics of small fluctuations on the stretched horizon can be viewed as corresponding to diffusion of a conserved charge in simple fluids. To study shear waves in this context properly, one must define a conserved stress tensor living on the stretched horizon. Then one is required to show that such a stress tensor satisfies the corresponding constitutive relations. These steps are missing in a previous treatment of the shear perturbations by Kovtun, Starinets and Son. In this n…
Deep conceptual problems associated with classical black holes can be addressed in string theory by the ``fuzzball'' paradigm, which provides a microscopic description of a black hole in terms of a thermodynamically large number of regular, horizonless, geometries with much less symmetry than the corresponding black hole. Motivated by the tantalizing possibility to observe quantum gravity signatures near astrophysical compact objects in this scenario, we perform the first $3+1$ numerical simulations of a scalar field propagating on a large class of multicenter geometries with no spatial isomet…
We consider the dynamics of a d+1 space-time dimensional membrane defined by the event horizon of a black brane in (d+2)-dimensional asymptotically Anti-de-Sitter space-time and show that it is described by the d-dimensional incompressible Navier-Stokes equations of non-relativistic fluids. The fluid velocity corresponds to the normal to the horizon while the rate of change in the fluid energy is equal to minus the rate of change in the horizon cross-sectional area. The analysis is performed in the Membrane Paradigm approach to black holes and it holds for a general non-singular null hypersurf…
The Bondi-van der Burg-Metzner-Sachs (BMS) group is the asymptotic symmetry group of asymptotically flat gravity. Recently, Donnay et al. have derived an analogous symmetry group acting on black hole event horizons. For a certain choice of boundary conditions, it is a semidirect product of ${\rm Diff}(S^2)$, the smooth diffeomorphisms of the two-sphere, acting on $C^\infty(S^2)$, the smooth functions on the two-sphere. We observe that the same group appears in fluid dynamics as symmetries of the compressible Euler equations. We relate these two realizations of ${\rm Diff}(S^2)\ltimes C^\infty(…
