We consider semi-classical solution of membranes on the AdS_4 x S^7. This is supposed to be dual to the N=6 super Chern-Simons theory with k=1 in a planar limit recently proposed by Aharony, Bergmann, Jafferis, and Maldacena (ABJM). We have identified giant magnon and single spike states on the membrane by reducing them to the Neumamm - Rosochatius integrable system. We also connect these to the complex sine-Gordon integrable model. Based on this approach, we find finite-size membrane solutions and obtain their images in the complex sine-Gordon system along with the leading finite-size corrections to the energy-charge relations.
We study membrane configurations in AdS_{7/4}xS^{4/7}. The membranes are wrapped around the compact manifold S^{4/7} and are dynamically equivalent to bosonic strings in AdS_5. We thus conveniently identify them as "Stringy Membranes". For the case of AdS_7xS^4, their construction is carried out by embedding the Polyakov action for classical bosonic strings in AdS_5, into the corresponding membrane action. Therefore, every string configuration in AdS_5 can be realized by an appropriately chosen stringy membrane in AdS_7xS^4. We discuss the possibility of this being also the case for stringy me…
In this note we discuss various classical membrane solutions in AdS$_4$ spacetime: simple embeddings given by polynomials in ambient space, solutions with non-linear waves, and piecewise linear solutions.
It is observed that strings in AdS_5 x S^5 and membranes in AdS_7 x S^4 exhibit long range phase interactions. Two well separated membranes dragged around one another in AdS acquire phases of 2π/N. The same phases are acquired by a well separated F and D string dragged around one another. The phases are shown to correspond to both the standard and a novel type of Aharonov-Bohm effect in the dual field theory.
We study classical solutions describing rotating and boosted membranes on AdS_7 x S^4 background in M-theory. We find the dependence of the energy on the spin and R-charge of these solutions. In the flat space limit we get E ~ S^{2/3}, while for AdS at leading order E-S grows as S^{1/3}. The membranes on AdS_4 x S^7 background have briefly been studied as well.
We study the stability of uniformly moving membrane-like objects in seven dimensional Anti-de Sitter space. This is approached by a linear perturbation analysis and a search for growing modes. We examine both analytic and numerical configurations previously found in [1].
We describe how Neumann and Neumann-Rosochatius type integrable systems, as well as the continuous limit of the SU(2) integrable spin chain, can be obtained from membranes on AdS_4 x S^7 background, in the framework of AdS/CFT correspondence.
Motivated by the recent progress on gravity duals of supersymmetric Chern-Simons matter theories, we consider classical membrane solutions in AdS_4 x M^{1,1,1}. In particular, we present several types of exact solutions rotating in the Sasaki-Einstein 7-manifold whose isometry is SU(3)xSU(2)xU(1). We analyze the limiting behavior of macroscopic membranes and discuss how one can identify the dual operators and the implications of our result on their conformal dimensions.
We study the properties of an exact multi-membrane solution in seven-dimensional maximal SO(5)-gauged supergravity. Unlike previously known multi-centered solutions, the present one is asymptotically anti-de Sitter. We show that this multi-membrane configuration preserves only a quarter of the supersymmetries. When lifted to eleven dimensions, this solution is interpreted as a set of open membranes ending on self-dual strings on a stack of M5-branes, in the near M5 limit.
We describe properties of the M-theory five-brane containing $Q$ coincident self-dual strings on its worldvolume. This is the five-brane description of Q membranes ending on the five-brane. In particular, we consider a Maldacena-like low energy limit in the six-dimensional worldvolume which yields a near `horizon' description of the self-dual string using light open membranes, i.e. OM theory, in an AdS_3 x S^3 geometry.
We consider superconformal field theories in three and six dimensions with eight supercharges which can be realized on the world-volume of M-theory branes sitting at orbifold singularities. We find that they should admit a N=4 and N=2 supergravity dual in AdS_4 and AdS_7, respectively. We discuss the characteristics of the corresponding gauged supergravities.
We perform a systematic study, in eleven dimensional supergravity, of the geometry of wrapped brane configurations admitting $AdS_2$ limits. Membranes wrapping holomorphic curves in Calabi-Yau manifolds are found to exhibit some novel features; in particular, for fourfolds or threefolds, the gravitational effect of the branes on the overall transverse space is only weakly restricted by the kinematics of the Killing spinor equation. We also study the $AdS_2$ limits of the wrapped brane supergravity descriptions. For membranes wrapped in a two-fold, we derive a set of $AdS_2$ supersymmetry condi…
According to the covariant open superstring description of D-branes in the AdS$_4 \times \mathbf{CP}^3$ background, 1/2-BPS D2-branes are purely instantonic. Based on this and by taking the eleven dimensional viewpoint, we identify the 1/2-BPS instantonic M2-brane configurations in the AdS$_4 \times$ S$^7 / \mathbf{Z}_k$ background, which reduces to the AdS$_4 \times \mathbf{CP}^3$ under the large $k$ limit, and evaluate their action values. We also consider the previously known 1/2-BPS instantonic objects in ten dimensions from the M2-brane viewpoint to compare with our results.
We present and analyze solutions of D=11 supergravity describing the ``near-horizon'' (i.e., asymptotically AdS_4 x S^7) geometry of M2-branes wrapped on surfaces of arbitrary genus. We study the forces experienced by test M2-branes in such backgrounds, and find evidence that extremal branes on surfaces of genera higher than the torus are unstable. Using the holographic connection between AdS spaces and superconformal field theories in the large N limit, we discuss the phases of the associated 2+1 dimensional theories. Finally, we also study the extension of these solutions to other branes, in…
We investigate maximal gauged supergravity in seven dimensions and some of its solitonic solutions. By focusing on a truncation of the gauged SO(5) R-symmetry group to its U(1)^2 Cartan subgroup, we construct general two charge black holes that are asymptotically anti-de Sitter. We demonstrate that 1- and 2-charge black holes preserve 1/2 and 1/4 of the supersymmetries respectively. Additionally, we examine the odd-dimensional self-duality equation governing the three-form potential transforming as the 5 of SO(5), and provide some insight on the construction of membrane solutions in anti-de Si…
We study 4d membranes in type IIA flux compactifications of the form AdS$_4 \times X_6$, where $X_6$ admits a Calabi--Yau metric. These models feature scale separation and D6-branes/O6-planes on three-cycles of $X_6$. When the latter are treated as localised sources, explicit solutions to the 10d equations of motion and Bianchi identities are known in 4d $\mathcal{N}=1$ settings, valid at first order in an expansion parameter related to the AdS$_4$ cosmological constant. We extend such solutions to a family of perturbatively stable $\mathcal{N}=0$ vacua, and analyse their non-perturbative stab…
We show that the $E-S \sim \log S$ behaviour found for long strings rotating on $AdS_5\times S^5$ may be reproduced by membranes rotating on $AdS_4\times S^7$ and on a warped $AdS_5$ M-theory solution. We go on to obtain rotating membrane configurations with the same $E-K \sim \log K$ relation on $G_2$ holonomy backgrounds that are dual to ${\mathcal{N}}=1$ gauge theories in four dimensions. We study membrane configurations on $G_2$ holonomy backgrounds systematically, finding various other Energy-Charge relations. We end with some comments about strings rotating on warped backgrounds.
If the second Betti number b_2 of a Sasaki-Einstein manifold Y^7 does not vanish, then M-theory on AdS_4 x Y^7 possesses "topological" U(1)^{b_2} gauge symmetry. The corresponding Abelian gauge fields come from three-form fluctuations with one index in AdS_4 and the other two in Y^7. We find black membrane solutions carrying one of these U(1) charges. In the zero temperature limit, our solutions interpolate between AdS_4 x Y^7 in the UV and AdS_2 x R^2 x squashed Y^7 in the IR. In fact, the AdS_2 x R^2 x squashed Y^7 background is by itself a solution of the supergravity equations of motion. T…
The quark-gluon plasma formed as a result of heavy-ion collisions is currently investigated actively both theoretically and experimentally. According to the holographic approach, forming a quark-gluon plasma in the four-dimensional world is associated with creating black holes in a five-dimensional anti-de Sitter space. The multiplicity of particles produced in heavy-ion collisions is then determined by the entropy of the five-dimensional black hole, which is estimated by the area of the trapped surface. To fit the experimental data for multiplicity Kiritsis and Taliotis have proposed to consi…
It is known that large class of classical string solutions in the type IIB AdS_5xS^5 background is related to the Neumann and Neumann-Rosochatius integrable systems, including spiky strings and giant magnons. It is also interesting if these integrable systems can be associated with some membrane configurations in M-theory. We show here that this is indeed the case by presenting explicitly several types of membrane embedding in AdS_4xS^7 with the searched properties.
We consider states with large angular momentum to facilitate the study of the M-theory regime of the AdS_4/CFT_3 correspondence. We study the duality between M-theory in AdS_4xS^7/Z_k and the ABJM N=6 Chern-Simons-matter theory with gauge group U(N)xU(N) and level k, taking N large and k of order 1. In this regime the lack of an explicit formulation of M-theory in AdS_4xS^7/Z_k makes the gravity side difficult, while the CFT is strongly coupled and the planar approximation is not applicable. To overcome these difficulties, we focus on states on the gravity side with large angular momentum J>>1…
We construct supergravity solutions dual to the twisted field theories arising when M-theory membranes wrap holomorphic curves in Calabi-Yau n-folds. The solutions are constructed in an Abelian truncation of maximal D=4 gauged supergravity and then uplifted to D=11. For four-folds and five-folds we find new smooth AdS/CFT examples and for all cases we analyse the nature of the singularities that arise. Our results provide an interpretation of certain charged topological AdS black holes. We also present the generalised calibration two-forms for the solutions.
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…
We consider massive type IIA orientifold compactifications of the form AdS$_4 \times X_6$, where $X_6$ admits a Calabi-Yau metric and is threaded by background fluxes. From a 4d viewpoint, fluxes generate a potential whose vacua have been classified, including one $\mathcal{N}=1$ and three perturbatively stable $\mathcal{N}=0$ branches. We reproduce this result from a 10d viewpoint, by solving the type IIA equations at the same level of detail as previously done for the $\mathcal{N}=1$ branch. All solutions exhibit localised sources and parametric scale separation. We then analyse the non-pert…
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…
Recently Martelli and Sparks presented the first non-toric AdS_4/CFT_3 duality relation between M-theory on AdS_4 x V_{5,2}/Z_k and a class of three-dimensional N=2 quiver Chern-Simons-matter theories. V_{5,2} is a seven-dimensional homogeneneous Sasaki-Einstein manifold with isometry group SO(5)xU(1)_R, which is in general broken to SU(2)xU(1)xU(1)_R by the orbifold projection if k>1. The dual field theory is described by the A_1 quiver, U(N)_k x U(N)_{-k} gauge group, four bifundamentals, two adjoint chiral multiplets interacting via a cubic superpotential. We explore this proposal by studyi…
We consider different M2-brane configurations in the M-theory AdS_7xS^4 background, with field theory dual A_{N-1}(2,0) SCFT. New membrane solutions are found and compared with the recently obtained ones.
We study a rotating probe membrane in S^3 inside AdS_4 x S^7 background of M-theory. With (partial) gauge fixing, we show that in the fast limit the worldvolume of tensionless membrane reduces to either the XXX_1/2 spin chain or the two-dimensional SU(2) Heisenberg spin model. Later we introduce the anisotropy and couple it to the external magnetic field. We also establish the correspondence for higher dimensional (D)p-branes.
We investigate classical rotating membranes in two different backgrounds. First, we obtain membrane solution in $AdS_4\times S^7$ background, analogous to the solution obtained by Hofman and Maldacena in the case of string theory. We find a magnon type dispersion relation similar to that of Hofman and Maldacena and to the one found by Dorey for the two spin case. In the appendix of the paper, we consider membrane solutions in $AdS_7\times S^4$, which give new relations between the conserved charges.
Colliding and intersecting hypersurfaces filled with matter (membranes) are studied in the Lovelock higher order curvature theory of gravity. Lovelock terms couple hypersurfaces of different dimensionalities, extending the range of possible intersection configurations. We restrict the study to constant curvature membranes in constant curvature AdS and dS background and consider their general intersections. This illustrates some key features which make the theory different to the Einstein gravity. Higher co-dimension membranes may lie at the intersection of co-dimension 1 hypersurfaces in Lovel…
We find membrane configurations in AdS_4 x S^7, which correspond to the continuous limit of the SU(2) integrable spin chain, considered as a limit of the SU(3) spin chain, arising in N=4 SYM in four dimensions, dual to strings in AdS_5 x S^5. We also discuss the relationship with the Neumann-Rosochatius integrable system at the level of Lagrangians, comparing the string and membrane cases.
We introduce two ansatzs for the 3-form potential of Euclidean 11d supergravity on skew-whiffed AdS_4 X S^7 background which results in two scalar modes with m^2=-2 on AdS_4. Being conformally coupled with a quartic interaction it is possible to find the exact solutions of the scalar equation on this background. These modes turn out to be invariant under SU(4) subgroup of SO(8) isometry group, whereas there are no corresponding SU(4) singlet BPS operators of dimensions one or two on the boundary ABJM theory. Noticing the interchange of 8_s and 8_c representations under skew-whiffing in the bul…
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 apply the hyperboloid membrane limit to the general Kerr-AdS metrics and their recently studied super-entropic cousins and obtain a new class of rotating black holes, for which the rotational parameters in multiple directions attain their maximal value---equal to the AdS radius. These new solutions have a potential application in the description of holographic fluids with vorticity. They also possess interesting thermodynamic properties: we show that---despite the absence of Misner strings---the Bekenstein--Hawking entropy/area law is still violated, raising a question about the origin of t…
Membrane nucleation, a higher dimensional analog of the Schwinger effect, is a useful toy model for vacuum decay. While a non-perturbative effect, the computation of nucleation rates has only been accomplished at weak coupling in the field theory. Here we compute the nucleation rates of spherical membranes using AdS/CFT duality, thus naturally including the effects of strong coupling. More precisely, we consider the nucleation of spherical membranes coupled to an antisymmetric tensor field, a process which renders the vacuum unstable above a critical value of the field strength. We analyze mem…
The original {\it membrane at the end of the universe} corresponds to a probe $M2$-brane of signature $(2,1)$ occupying the $S^{2} \times S^{1}$ boundary of the $(10,1)$ spacetime $AdS_{4} \times S^{7}$, and is described by an $OSp(4/8)$ SCFT. However, it was subsequently generalized to other worldvolume signatures $(s,t)$ and other spacetime signatures $(S,T)$. An interesting special case is provided by the $(3,0)$ brane at the end of the de Sitter universe $dS_{4}$ which has recently featured in the $dS/CFT$ correspondence. The resulting CFT contains the one recently proposed as the holograp…
We study supersymmetric branes in AdS_7 x S^4 and AdS_4 x S^7. We show that in the former case the membranes should be viewed as M5 branes with fluxes and we identify two types of such fivebranes (they are analogous to giant gravitons and to dual giants). In AdS_4 x S^7 we find both M5 branes with fluxes and freestanding stacks of membranes. We also go beyond probe approximation and construct regular supergravity solutions describing geometries produced by the branes. The metrics are completely specified by one function which satisfies either Laplace or Toda equation and we give a complete cla…
We present new SO(4)-invariant and non-supersymmetric instanton solutions for the conformally coupled m^2=-2 and massive m^2=+4 (pseudo)scalars arising from a consistent truncation of 11-dimensional supergravity over AdS_4 x S^7/Z_k when the internal space is a S^1 Hopf fibration on CP^3, and we consider backreaction. In fact, the bulk configurations associate with (anti)membranes wrapped around mixed internal (and external) directions, which in turn probe the Wick-rotated or skew-whiffed background, break all supersymmetries as well as parity invariance. From near the boundary behavior of the…
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…
It has recently been demonstrated that black hole dynamics at large D is dual to the motion of a probe membrane propagating in the background of a spacetime that solves Einstein's equations. The equation of motion of this membrane is determined by the membrane stress tensor. In this paper we `improve' the membrane stress tensor derived in earlier work to ensure that it defines consistent probe membrane dynamics even at finite $D$ while reducing to previous results at large D. Our improved stress tensor is the sum of a Brown York term and a fluid energy momentum tensor. The fluid has an unusual…
In this paper we consider Abelian vector plus scalar holographic gravity models for 2+1 dimensional condensed matter transport, and the effect of S-duality on them. We find the transport coefficients from the electric and heat currents via usual membrane paradigm-type calculations, and the effect of S-duality on them. We study the same system also by using the entropy function formalism in the extremal case, and the formalism of holographic Stokes equations, in the case of one-dimensional lattices. We study a few generalizations that appear when considering a supergravity-inspired model, and a…
Size and Shape of Fuzzy Spheres from Matrix/Membrane Correspondence
Massachusetts Institute of Technology(麻省理工学院);Scripps College(斯克里普斯学院);Claremont McKenna College(克莱蒙特麦肯纳学院);Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology(胡志明市理工大学);Department of Natural Sciences, Scripps and Pitzer Colleges, Claremont Colleges Consortium(克莱蒙特学院联盟斯克里普斯和皮策学院自然科学系)
We discuss the junction conditions in the context of the Randall-Sundrum model with the Gauss-Bonnet interaction. We consider the $Z_2$ symmetric model where the brane is embedded in an $AdS_5$ bulk, as well as a model without $Z_2$ symmetry in which the brane (in this case called by tradition ``shell'') separates two metrically different $AdS_5$ regions. We show that the Israel junction conditions across the membrane (that is either a brane or a shell) have to be modified if more general equations than Einstein's, including higher curvature terms, hold in the bulk, as is likely to be the case…
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…