Weakly nonlinear dynamics in anti-de Sitter (AdS) spacetimes is reviewed, keeping an eye on the AdS instability conjecture and focusing on the resonant approximation that accurately captures in a simplified form the long-term evolution of small initial data. Topics covered include turbulent and regular motion, dynamical recurrences analogous to the Fermi-Pasta-Ulam phenomena in oscillator chains, and relations between AdS dynamics and nonrelativistic nonlinear Schrodinger equations in harmonic potentials. Special mention is given to the way the classical dynamics of weakly nonlinear strongly resonant systems is illuminated by perturbative considerations within the corresponding quantum theories, in particular, in relation to quantum chaos theory.
We consider five-dimensional, vacuum Einstein equations with negative cosmological constant within cohomogenity-two biaxial Bianchi IX ansatz. This model allows to investigate the stability of AdS without adding any matter to the energy-momentum tensor, thus analyzing instability of genuine gravtational degrees of freedom. We derive the resonant system and identify vanishing secular terms. The results resemble those obtained for Einstein equations coupled to a spherically-symmetric, massless scalar field, backing the evidence that the scalar field model captures well the relevant features of A…
We assess the role of a resonant spectrum in the AdS instability, and quantify the extent to which breaking the resonant spectrum of AdS can restore stability. Specifically, we study non-collapsing `multi-oscillator' solutions in AdS under various boundary conditions that allow for both resonant and non-resonant spectra. We find non-collapsing two mode, equal amplitude solutions in the non-resonant Robin case, and that these solutions vanish in the fully resonant Dirichlet case. This is consistent with non-resonant stability, and with the idea that stable solutions in the Dirichlet case are al…
In this work we show the existence of asymptotically AdS wormhole geometries where the scalar probe has an equispaced, fully resonant spectrum, as that of a scalar on AdS spacetime, and explore its dynamics when non-linearities are included. The spacetime is a solution of Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet theory with a single maximally symmetric vacuum. Introducing a non-minimal coupling between the scalar probe and the Ricci scalar remarkably leads to a fully resonant spectrum for a scalar field fulfilling reflective boundary conditions at both infinities. Applying perturbative methods, which are particu…
We study the cubic wave equation in AdS_(d+1) (and a closely related cubic wave equation on S^3) in a weakly nonlinear regime. Via time-averaging, these systems are accurately described by simplified infinite-dimensional quartic Hamiltonian systems, whose structure is mandated by the fully resonant spectrum of linearized perturbations. The maximally rotating sector, comprising only the modes of maximal angular momentum at each frequency level, consistently decouples in the weakly nonlinear regime. The Hamiltonian systems obtained by this decoupling display remarkable periodic return behaviors …
We study the nonlinear evolution of a weakly perturbed anti-de Sitter (AdS) spacetime by solving numerically the four-dimensional spherically symmetric Einstein-massless-scalar field equations with negative cosmological constant. Our results suggest that AdS spacetime is unstable under arbitrarily small generic perturbations. We conjecture that this instability is triggered by a resonant mode mixing which gives rise to diffusion of energy from low to high frequencies.
We consider spherically symmetric Einstein-massless-scalar field equations with negative cosmological constant in five dimensions and analyze evolution of small perturbations of anti-de Sitter spacetime using the recently proposed resonant approximation. We show that for typical initial data the solution of the resonant system develops an oscillatory singularity in finite time. This result hints at a possible route to establishing instability of AdS under arbitrarily small perturbations.
Recent studies of the weakly nonlinear dynamics of probe fields in global AdS$_4$ (and of the nonrelativistic limit of AdS resulting in the Gross-Pitaevskii equation) have revealed a number of cases with exact dynamical returns for two-mode initial data. In this paper, we address the question whether similar exact returns are present in the weakly nonlinear dynamics of gravitationally backreacting perturbations in global AdS$_4$. In the literature, approximate returns were first pointed out numerically and with limited precision. We first provide a thorough numerical analysis and discover retu…
The familiar $c\rightarrow \infty$ nonrelativistic limit converts the Klein-Gordon equation in Minkowski spacetime to the free Schroedinger equation, and the Einstein-massive-scalar system without a cosmological constant to the Schroedinger-Newton (SN) equation. In this paper, motivated by the problem of stability of Anti-de Sitter (AdS) spacetime, we examine how this limit is affected by the presence of a negative cosmological constant $Λ$. Assuming for consistency that the product $Λc^2$ tends to a negative constant as $c\rightarrow \infty$, we show that the corresponding nonrelativistic lim…
We revisit the box Minkowski model [Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 221101 (2012)] and provide a strong argument that, subject to the Dirichlet boundary condition, it is unstable toward black hole formation for arbitrarily small generic perturbations. Using weakly nonlinear perturbation theory, we derive the resonant system, which compared to systems with the anti-de Sitter asymptotics, has extra resonant terms, and study its properties, including conserved quantities. We find that the generic solution of the resonant system becomes singular in finite time. Surprisingly, the additional resonant interact…
Weakly nonlinear analysis of resonant PDEs in recent literature has generated a number of resonant systems for slow evolution of the normal mode amplitudes that possess remarkable properties. Despite being infinite-dimensional Hamiltonian systems with cubic nonlinearities in the equations of motion, these resonant systems admit special analytic solutions, which furthermore display periodic perfect energy returns to the initial configurations. Here, we construct a very large class of resonant systems that shares these properties that have so far been seen in specific examples emerging from a fe…
We study implications of the weak gravity conjecture in the AdS/CFT correspondence. Unlike in Minkowski spacetime, AdS spacetime has a physical length scale, so that the conjecture must be generalized with an additional parameter. We discuss possible generalizations and translate them into the language of dual CFTs, which take the form of inequalities involving the dimension and charge of an operator as well as the current and energy-momentum tensor central charges. We then test these inequalities against various CFTs to see if they are universally obeyed by all the CFTs. We find that certain …
We point out that the weakly turbulent instability of anti-de Sitter space, recently found in arXiv:1104.3702 for four dimensional spherically symmetric Einstein-massless-scalar field equations with negative cosmological constant, is present in all dimensions $d+1$ for $d\geq 3$, contrary to a claim made in arXiv:1106.2339.
I compare two holographic mechanisms giving to the graviton a parametrically-small supersymmetric mass $m_g$ in Anti-de Sitter spacetime. In the context of bi-metric gravity these mechanisms couple `weakly' two initially decoupled superconformal theories by: (i) turning on a double-trace deformation, or (ii) gauging a common global symmetry. Superconformal invariance restricts the number of Poincaré supercharges to $N_Q\leq 4$ for mechanism (i) and to $N_Q\leq 8$ for mechanism (ii), and the AdS dimension to $D\leq 5$. The putative effective supergravities are expected to break down in the $m_g…
It is well known that a weakly coupled U(N) gauge theory on a torus with sides of length L has extra light states with energies of order 1/NL. We show that a similar result holds for gauge theories on M/G where M is any compact Riemannian manifold and G is any freely acting discrete isometry group. As in the toroidal case, this is achieved by adding a suitable nontrivial flat connection. As one application, we consider the AdS/CFT correspondence on spacetimes asymptotic to AdS_5/G. By considering finite size effects at nonzero temperature, we show that consistency requires these extra light st…
We explore $\mathcal{N}=1$ supersymmetric extensions of algebras going beyond the Poincaré and AdS ones in three spacetime dimensions. Besides reproducing two known examples, we present new superalgebras, which all correspond to supersymmetric extensions with one fermionic charge $Q_α$ concerning the so-called resonant algebras being characterized by the presence of an additional bosonic generator $Z_{a}$, besides the Lorentz $J_{a}$ and translation $P_{a}$ generators. Obtained eight supersymmetric $JPZ+Q$ schemes result directly from obeying super-Jacobi identities. We point out particular re…
In this work, we analyze the necessary conditions for a nonlinear AdS-type instability in the gravity-scalar field system. In particular, we discuss the necessary conditions for a cascade of energy to higher modes by applying results in KAM theory. Our analytical framework explains numerical observations of instability of spacetimes even when the spectrum is only asymptotically resonant, and the fact that a minimum field amplitude is needed to trigger it. Our framework can be applied for similar stability analyses of fields in (locally) asymptotically AdS spacetimes. We illustrate this with th…
We propose a CFT unitary description of the gravitational collapse. The starting point is the model of a black hole in AdS proposed by Maldacena in arXiv: 0106112 [hep-th]. We show that by proposing a two-copies version of the AdS/CFT conjecture, the process of formation of black holes so as other spacetimes with horizons may be described as an unitary process in the dual field theory. In doing this, we construct a well defined framework to describe general spacetimes as entangled states, in terms of the spectrum of states on the exact Anti-de-Sitter background. As application, we show how the…
