There is now strong evidence that the superconformal index of holographic gauge theories admits a giant graviton expansion capturing the worldvolume dynamics of spherical D3-branes moving in internal space. While the giant graviton indices may be written as suitable contour integrals, care must be taken in their evaluation, as there can be an ambiguity in choice of integration contour or, equivalently, "pole selection". We resolve this ambiguity by using Murthy's recent expansion of the superconformal index to provide a rigorous underpinning of the evaluation of the supergravity giant graviton indices. In doing so, we directly relate Murthy's giant graviton expansion to the supergravity D3-brane expansion.
We investigate contributions of giant gravitons to the superconformal index. We concentrate on coincident giant gravitons wrapped around a single cycle, and each contribution is obtained by a certain variable change for fugacities from the index of the worldvolume theory on the giant gravitons. Because we treat the index as a series of fugacities and the variable change relates different convergence regions, we need an analytic continuation before summing up such contributions. We propose a systematic prescription for the continuation. Although our argument is based on some unproved assumption…
In this note we present several ideas toward the solution to the giant graviton puzzle - the apparent multiplicity of supergravity states dual to field theory chiral primary operators. We use the fact that, for certain ranges of the angular momentum, giant gravitons can be mapped into vacua of a dual theory to argue that the sphere and $AdS$ giant gravitons have very different boundary descriptions, and that an unpolarized KK graviton is unphysical in the regime where giant gravitons exist. We also show that a generic boundary state can correspond to different giant graviton configurations, wh…
The thermal instability of the giant graviton is investigated within the BMN matrix model. We calculate the one-loop thermal correction of the quantum fluctuation around the trivial vacuum and giant graviton respectively. From the exact formula of the free energy we see that at low temperature the giant graviton is unstable and will dissolve into vacuum fluctuation. However, at sufficient high temperature the trivial vacuum fluctuation will condense to form the giant graviton configuration. The transition temperature of the giant graviton is determined in our calculation.
We construct and study new giant graviton configurations in the framework of the non-supersymmetric Schrodinger holography. We confirm in the original Schrodinger spacetime, the picture discovered previously in the pp-wave limit of the geometry, namely that it is the giant graviton that becomes the energetically favored stable configuration compared to the point graviton one. Furthermore, there is a critical value of the deformation above which the point graviton disappears from the spectrum. The former fact leads also to the possibility of tunnelling from the point graviton to the giant gravi…
In this article, the free field theory limit of operators dual to giant gravitons with open strings attached are studied. We introduce a graphical notation, which employs Young diagrams, for these operators. The computation of two point correlation functions is reduced to the application of three simple rules, written as graphical operations performed on the Young diagram labels of the operators. Using this technology, we have studied gravitational radiation by giant gravitons and bound states of giant gravitons, transitions between excited giant graviton states and joining of open strings att…
We construct the full set of boundary giant magnons on $\mathbb{R}\times S^{2}$ attached to the maximal $Z=0$ giant graviton by mapping from the general solution to static sine-Gordon theory on the interval and compute the values of $Δ-J$ at finite $J$, including the leading order corrections when $J$ is large. We then consider the Born-Infeld theory of the giant graviton itself to construct BIon spike solutions that correspond to the world volume description of the boundary giant magnons at finite $J$.
Working within the AdS/CFT correspondence we calculate the three-point function of two giant gravitons and one pointlike graviton using methods of semiclassical string theory and considering both the case where the giant gravitons wrap an S^3 in S^5 and the case where the giant gravitons wrap an S^3 in AdS_5. We likewise calculate the correlation function in N=4 SYM using two Schur polynomials and a single trace chiral primary. We find that the gauge and string theory results have structural similarities but do not match perfectly, and interpret this in terms of the Schur polynomials' inabilit…
In this article we continue with the microscopical investigation of giant graviton configurations in AdS_m x S^n spacetimes, initiated in hep-th/0207199. Using dualities and a Matrix theory derivation we propose an action that describes multiple Type IIB gravitons. This action contains multipole moment couplings to the Type IIB background potentials. Using these couplings, we study, from the microscopical point of view, the giant graviton and dual giant graviton configurations in the AdS_5 x S^5 background. In both cases the gravitons expand into a non-commutative 3-sphere, that is defined as …
We prove that in the presence of a maximal giant graviton state in N=4 SYM, the states dual to open strings attached to the giant graviton give rise to an PSU(2,2|4) open spin chain model with integrable boundary conditions in the SO(6) sector of the spin chain to one loop order.
We construct a new giant graviton solution on the recently constructed pp-wave geometry of the non-supersymmetric Schrodinger background. That solution exhibits an intriguing behavior as the deformation parameter of the spacetime varies. Firstly, the degeneracy between the giant and the point graviton is lifted for the benefit of the giant graviton as soon as the deformation is turned on. Secondly, when the deformation parameter exceeds a critical value the barrier separating the point from the giant graviton disappears. This suggests that the mere presence of a D3-brane leads to the spontaneo…
We produce the open strings on $\mathbb{R}\times S^{2}$ that correspond to the solutions of integrable boundary sine-Gordon theory by making use of the $N$-magnon solutions provided in \cite{KPV} together with explicit moduli. Relating the two boundary parameters in a special way we describe the scattering of giant magnons with non-maximal $Y=0$ giant gravitons and calculate the leading contribution to the associated magnon scattering phase.
We consider giant gravitons on the maximally supersymmetric plane-wave background of type IIB string theory. Fixing the light-cone gauge, we work out the low energy effective light-cone Hamiltonian of the three-sphere giant graviton. At first order, this is a U(1) gauge theory on R x S^3. We place sources in this effective gauge theory. Although non-vanishing net electric charge configurations are disallowed by Gauss' law, electric dipoles can be formed. From the string theory point of view these dipoles can be understood as open strings piercing the three-sphere, generalizing the usual BIons …
We examine the giant graviton expansions of the Coulomb and Higgs indices for the M2-brane SCFTs to find the closed-form expressions for the indices that encode the spectra of the $1/4$-BPS M5-brane giant gravitons and the $1/3$-BPS orbifold M5-brane giant gravitons. Consequently, we get exact forms of the twisted indices for the 6d $(2,0)$ theories describing a stack of $N$ M5-branes which generalize the unrefined indices. We confirm that they are also beautifully expanded with respect to the indices for the M2-brane giant gravitons which are obtained from the Coulomb and Higgs indices for th…
We examine giant gravitons with a worldvolume magnetic flux $q$ in type IIA pp-wave background and find that they can move away from the origin along $x^4$ direction in target space satisfying $Rx^4=-q$. This nontrivial relation can be regarded as a complementary relation of the giant graviton on IIA pp-wave and is shown to be connected to the spacetime uncertainty principle. The giant graviton is also investigated in a system of N D0-branes as a fuzzy sphere solution. It is observed that $x^4$ enters into the fuzzy algebra as a deformation parameter. Such a background dependent Myers effect g…
The rotating D3-brane in the $AdS_5 \times S^5$ spacetime could be blowed up to the spherical BPS configuration which has the same energy and quantum number of the point-like graviton and is called as a giant graviton. The configuration is stable only if its angular momentum was less than a critical value of $P_c$. In this paper we investigate the properties of the giant graviton in the electric/magnetic Melvin geometries of deformed $AdS_5 \times S^5$ spacetime which was obtained in our previous paper (hep-th/0512117, Phys. Rev. D73 (2006) 026007). We find that in the magnetic Melvin spacetim…
In our previous work (Phys. Rev. D63, 085010, hep-th/0011290), we showed that the brane universe on the giant graviton moving in the near-horizon background of the dilatonic D(6-p)-brane is described by the mirage cosmology. We study thermodynamic properties of the moving giant graviton by applying thermodynamics of cosmology and the recently proposed holographic principles of cosmology. We find that the Fischler-Susskind holographic bound is satisfied by the closed brane universe on the moving giant graviton with p>3. The Bekenstein and the Hubble entropy bounds and the recently proposed Verl…
Giant gravitons are described microscopically in terms of dielectric gravitational waves expanding into fuzzy manifolds. We review these constructions in AdS_m \times S^n spacetimes, discussing the different fuzzy manifolds that appear in each case.
We find a simple parametrization of the anti-symmetric giant graviton in AdS_4 x CP^3, first constructed in arXiv:1108.3084 [hep-th], dual to the anti-symmetric Schur polynomial involving two bi-fundamental complex scalar fields of ABJM theory. Using this parametrization we evaluate in a semi-classical approach the three-point function of two such giant gravitons and one point-like graviton considering both extremal and non-extremal configurations. We likewise discuss the case of the symmetric giant graviton in AdS_4 x CP^3. Finally, we provide an expression for the planar three-point function…
We study classical solutions in Berenstein-Maldacena-Nastase (BMN) matrix model. A supersymmetric (1/2 BPS) fuzzy sphere is one of the classical solutions and corresponds to a giant graviton. We also consider other classical solutions, such as non-supersymmetric fuzzy sphere and harmonic oscillating gravitons. Some properties of oscillating gravitons are discussed. In particular, oscillating gravitons turn into usual supergravitons in the limit mu -> 0. Moreover, we calculate the one-loop effective action around the supersymmetric fuzzy sphere by the use of the background field method and show…
We argue that the giant graviton configurations known from the literature have a complementary, microscopical description in terms of multiple gravitational waves undergoing a dielectric (or magnetic moment) effect. We present a non-Abelian effective action for these gravitational waves with dielectric couplings and show that stable dielectric solutions exist. These solutions agree in the large $N$ limit with the giant graviton configurations in the literature.
We present the Penrose limits of a complex marginal deformation of $AdS_5\times S^5$, which incorporates the $SL(2,\mathbb{R})$ symmetry of type IIB theory, along the $(J,0,0)$ geodesic and along the $(J,J,J)$ geodesic. We discuss giant gravitons on the deformed $(J,0,0)$ pp-wave background.
We consider the perturbation of giant gravitons in the background of dilatonic D-branes whose geometry is not of a conventional form of ${\rm AdS}_m \times {\rm S}^n$. We use the quadratic approximation to the brane action to investigate their vibrations around the equilibrium configuration. We found the normal modes of small vibrations of giant gravitons and these vibrations are turned out to be stable.
We construct a non-Abelian world volume effective action for a system of multiple M-theory gravitons. This action contains multipole moment couplings to the eleven-dimensional background potentials. We use these couplings to study, from the microscopical point of view, giant graviton configurations where the gravitons expand into an M2-brane, with the topology of a fuzzy 2-sphere, that lives in the spherical part of the AdS_7 x S^4 background or in the AdS part of AdS_4 x S^7. When the number of gravitons is large we find perfect agreement with the Abelian, macroscopical description of giant g…
Using the type II near-extremal 3D-branes solution we apply the T-duality and smeared twist to construct the supergravity backgrounds which dual to the 4D finite temperature non-commutative dipole field theories. We first consider the zero-temperature system in which, depending on the property of dipole vectors it may be N=2, N=1 or N=0 theory. We investigate the rotating D3-brane configurations moving on the spactimes and show that, for the cases of N=2 and N =1 the rotating D3-brane could be blowed up to the stable spherical configuration which is called as giant graviton and has a less ener…
A new approach to the computation of correlation functions involving two determinant operators as well as one non-protected single trace operator has recently been developed by Jiang, Komatsu and Vescovi. This correlation function provides the holographic description of the absorption of a closed string by a giant graviton. The analysis has a natural interpretation in the framework of group representation theory, which admits a generalization to general Schur polynomials and restricted Schur polynomials. This generalizes the holographic description to any giant or dual giant gravitons which ca…
We introduce a class of supersymmetric cycles in spacetimes of the form AdS times a sphere or $T^{1,1}$ which can be considered as generalizations of the giant gravitons. Branes wrapped on these cycles preserve $1\over 2$, $1\over 4$ or $1\over 8$ of the supersymmetry. On the CFT side these configurations correspond to superpositions of the large number of BPS states.
We study the stability of the giant gravitons in the string theory background with NSNS B field. We consider the perturbation of giant gravitons formed by a probe D$(8-p)$ brane in the background generated by D$(p-2)$-D$(p)$ branes for $2 \le p \le 5$. We use the quadratic approximation to the brane action to find the equations of motion. For $p=5$, giant graviton configurations are stable independent of the size of the brane. For $p \ne 5$, we calculated the range of the size of the brane where they are stable. We also present the mode frequencies explicitly for some special cases.
We study the one-loop anomalous dimensions of the Super Yang-Mills dual operators to open strings ending on AdS giant gravitons. AdS giant gravitons have no upper bound for their angular momentum and we represent them by the contraction of scalar fields, carrying the appropriate R-charge, with a totally symmetric tensor. We represent the open string motion along AdS directions by appending to the giant graviton operator a product of fields including covariant derivatives. We derive a bosonic lattice Hamiltonian that describes the mixing of these excited AdS giants operators under the action of…
We study AdS$_5$ black holes from a recently suggested giant graviton expansion formula for the index of $U(N)$ maximal super-Yang-Mills theory. We compute the large $N$ entropy at fixed charges and giant graviton numbers $n_I$ by a saddle point analysis, and further maximize it in $n_I$. This agrees with the dual black hole entropy in the small black hole limit. To get black holes at general sizes, one should note that various giant graviton indices cancel because gauge theory does not suffer from a Hagedorn-like pathology by an infinite baryonic tower. With one assumption on the mechanism of…
We examine a family of BPS solutions of ten-dimensional type IIb supergravity. These solutions asymptotically approach AdS_5 X S^5 and carry internal `angular' momentum on the five-sphere. While a naked singularity appears at the center of the anti-de Sitter space, we show that it has a natural physical interpretation in terms of a collection of giant gravitons. We calculate the distribution of giant gravitons from the dipole field induced in the Ramond-Ramond five-form, and show that these sources account for the entire internal momentum carried by the BPS solutions.
We extend the Zamolodchikov-Faddeev algebra for the superstring sigma model on $AdS_{5}\times S^{5}$, which was formulated by Arutyunov, Frolov and Zamaklar, to the case of open strings attached to maximal giant gravitons, which was recently considered by Hofman and Maldacena. We obtain boundary $S$-matrices which satisfy the standard boundary Yang-Baxter equation.
We consider the plane wave limit of the nonspherical giant gravitons. We compute the Poisson brackets of the coordinate functions and find a nonlinear algebra. We show that this algebra solves the supersymmetry conditions of the matrix model. This is the generalization of the algebraic realization of the spherical membrane as the ``fuzzy sphere''. We describe finite dimensional representations of the algebra corresponding to the fuzzy torus.
We propose a correspondence between the physics of certain small charge black holes in AdS_k x S^l and large charge black holes in AdS_l x S^k. The curvature singularities of these solutions arise, following Myers and Tafjord, from a condensate of giant gravitons. When the number of condensed giants N_g is much greater than the number of background branes N, we propose that the system has an equivalent description in terms of N giant gravitons condensed in a background created by N_g branes. Our primary evidence is an exact correspondence between gravitational entropy formulae of small and lar…
We find new 1/8-BPS giant graviton solutions in $AdS_5 \times S^5$, carrying three angular momenta along $S^5$, and investigate their properties. Especially, we show that nonzero worldvolume gauge fields are admitted preserving supersymmetry. These gauge field modes can be viewed as electromagnetic waves along the compact D3 brane, whose Poynting vector contributes to the BPS angular momenta. We also analyze the (nearly-)spherical giant gravitons with worldvolume gauge fields in detail. Expressing the $S^3$ in Hopf fibration ($S^1$ fibred over $S^2$), the wave propagates along the $S^1$ fiber.
We study the one-loop anomalous dimensions of operators in the ${\cal N}=4$ super Yang-Mills theory that are dual to open strings ending on giant gravitons. We consider both AdS and sphere giants as well as boundstates of them. The open strings we consider carry angular momentum on an S^3 embedded in the S^5 of the AdS$_5\times$S^5 background. The main result of this article is that we derive a bosonic lattice Hamiltonian that describes the one loop mixing of the operators dual to the general excited giant graviton system. A semiclassical analysis of the Hamiltonian allows us to give a geometr…
I consider the giant gravitons in AdS5 x S5. By numerical simulation, I show a strong indication that there is no instanton solution describing the direct tunneling between the giant graviton in the S5 and its dual counterpart in the AdS5. I argue that it supports the supersymmetry breaking scenario suggested in hep-th/0008015
We consider the warped AdS(6)xS^4/Z_n backgrounds dual to certain 5d quiver gauge theories. By studying dual giant gravitons in the AdS(6) geometry we are able to partially probe the Higgs branch of these theories. We show how the quantization of the phase space of such dual giants coincides with the counting of holomorphic functions on C^2/Z_n, which is the geometric part of the Higgs branch for these theories.
We study integrable non-diagonal open boundary conditions for spin chains arising from holographic gauge theories. Their dual description is in terms of open strings stretching between giant gravitons intersecting at arbitrary angles inside spheres or projective spaces. By studying properties of their ground and low-lying states we reproduce the expected spectrum near the intersections. Unlike the case of intersecting D-branes in flat space, intersecting giant gravitons related by $SU(N)$ rotations do not always preserve an additional supersymmetry. We quantify this lack of enhancement by whet…
We investigate the giant gravitons in the maximally supersymmetric IIB pp-wave from several viewpoints: (i) the dynamics of D3-branes, (ii) the world-sheet description and (iii) the correlation functions in the dual N=4 Yang-Mills theory. In particular, we derive the BPS equation of a D3-brane with magnetic flux, which is equivalent to multiple D-strings, and discuss the behavior of solutions in the presence of RR-flux. We find solutions which represent the excitations of the giant gravitons in that system.
We examine the spectrum of small vibrations of giant gravitons, when the gravitons expand in the anti-de-Sitter space and when they expand on the sphere. For any given angular harmonic, the modes are found to have frequencies related to the curvature length scale of the background; these frequencies are independent of radius (and hence angular momentum) of the brane itself. This implies that the holographic dual theory must have, in a given R charge sector, low-lying non-BPS excitations with level spacings independent of the R charge.
In this article we describe the giant graviton configurations in AdS_m x S^n backgrounds that involve 5-spheres, namely, the giant graviton in AdS_4 x S^7 and the dual giant graviton in AdS_7 x S^4, in terms of dielectric gravitational waves. Thus, we conclude the programme initiated in hep-th/0207199 and pursued in hep-th/0303183 and hep-th/0406148 towards the microscopical description of giant gravitons in AdS_m x S^n spacetimes. In our construction the gravitational waves expand due to Myers dielectric effect onto fuzzy 5-spheres which are described as S^1 bundles over fuzzy CP^2. These fuz…
We generalize the operators of ABJM theory, given by Schur polynomials, in ABJ theory by computing the two point functions in the free field and at finite $(N_1,N_2)$ limits. These polynomials are then identified with the states of the dual gravity theory. Further, we compute correlators among giant gravitons as well as between giant gravitons and ordinary gravitons through the corresponding correlators of ABJ(M) theory. Finally, we consider a particular non-trivial background produced by an operator with an $\cal R$-charge of $O(N^2)$ and find, in presence of this background, due to the contr…
In this paper I describe a collective coordinate approach to the study of giant graviton states and their excitations in various field theories. The method simplifies considerably the understanding of emergent gauge symmetry of these configurations, as well as the calculation of the spectrum of strings stretched between the giant gravitons. There is a limit where these results reproduce the one loop dispersion relation for giant magnons. I also show that this method gives rise to a simple geometric interpretation of a Higgs mechanism for the emergent gauge symmetry which parallels the holograp…
A small number of M-theory branes as giant gravitons in the M-theory sector of LLM geometry is studied as a probe. The abelian way shows that the low energy effective action for M-theory brane is exactly the 2d electron subject to a vertical magnetic field. We also briefly discuss the microscopic description of M2-brane giant graviton in this geometry, in the language of a combination of D0-branes as fuzzy 2-spheres. Then we go to the well-established Noncommutative Chern-Simons theory description. After quantization, well behaved Fractional Quantum Hall Effect is demonstrated. This goes beyon…
We consider giant gravitons in the maximally supersymmetric type IIB plane-wave, in the presence of a constant NSNS B-field background. We show that in response to the background B-field the giant graviton would take the shape of a deformed three-sphere, the size and shape of which depend on the B-field, and that the giant becomes classically unstable once the B-field is larger than a critical value B_{cr}. In particular, for the B-field which is (anti-)self-dual under the SO(4) isometry of the original giant S^3, the closed string metric is that of a round S^3, while the open string metric is…
We study classical solutions to the Nambu-Goto string on $AdS_2 \times S^1$ and $AdS_3 \times S^1$ corresponding to strings stretched between wrapped branes extending in $AdS$. The solutions are obtained by analytic continuation of giant magnon solutions, cut at the position of the branes. These solutions carry one or two $SO(2,4)$ charges and a single $SO(6)$ charge. We compute their energies and show their relation to $\frac{1}{2}$-BPS geometries. Their relevance to the $SL(2)$ sector of $\mathcal{N}=4$ SYM is also discussed.
Using Mikhailov's map from holomorphic functions to supersymmetric D3-brane solutions, we show how to construct giant gravitons in AdS5 x S5 with toroidal topologies. In the 1/4-BPS sector we show that these are always of the form #^K (S2 x S1), and in the limit in which this becomes a set of m+n perpendicular spherical giants re-connected near to their intersections, we find K in terms of m,n. In the 1/8-BPS sector we find a similar class of solutions.
In this article we study giant gravitons in the framework of AdS/CFT correspondence. First, we show how to describe these configurations in the CFT side using a matrix model. In this picture, giant gravitons are realized as single excitations high above a Fermi sea, or as deep holes into it. Then, we give a prescription to define quasi-classical states and we recover the known classical solution associated to the CFT dual of a giant graviton that grows in AdS. Second, we use the AdS/CFT dictionary to obtain the supergravity boundary stress tensor of a general state and to holographically recon…
We consider giant gravitons as probes of a class of ten-dimensional solutions of type IIB supergravity which arise as lifts of solutions of U(1)^3 gauged N=2 supergravity in five-dimensions. Surprisingly it is possible to solve exactly for minimum energy configurations of these spherical D3-brane probes in the compact directions, even in backgrounds which preserve no supersymmetry. The branes behave as massive charged particles in the five non-compact dimensions. As an example we probe geometries which are believed to represent the supergravity background of coherent states of giant gravitons.…
We consider BPS motion of dual giant gravitons on Ad$S_5\times Y^5$ where $Y^5$ represents a five-dimensional Sasaki-Einstein manifold. We find that the phase space for the BPS dual giant gravitons is symplectically isomorphic to the Calabi-Yau cone over $Y^5$, with the Kähler form identified with the symplectic form. The quantization of the dual giants therefore coincides with the Kähler quantization of the cone which leads to an explicit correspondence between holomorphic wavefunctions of dual giants and gauge-invariant operators of the boundary theory. We extend the discussion to dual giant…
In this article, we describe giant gravitons in AdS_5 x S^5 moving along generic trajectories in AdS_5. The giant graviton dynamics is solved by proving that the D3-brane effective action reduces to that of a massive point particle in AdS_5 and therefore the solutions are in one to one correspondence with timelike geodesics of AdS_5. All these configurations are related via isometries of the background, which induce target space symmetries in the world volume theory of the D-brane. Hence, all these configurations preserve the same amount of supersymmetry as the original giant graviton, i.e. ha…
We propose and test a novel conjectural relation satisfied by the superconformal index of maximally supersymmetric $U(N)$ gauge theory in four dimensions. Analogous relations appear to be also valid for the superconformal indices of a large collection of other gauge theories, as well as for a broad class of index-like generating functions. The relation expresses the finite $N$ index as a systematic series of corrections to a large $N$ answer. Individual corrections have an holographic interpretation as the analytic continuation of contributions from "giant graviton" branes fixed by a specific …
We implement Mikhailov's holomorphic curve construction to explore various properties of giant gravitons in type IIB string theory on $AdS_{5}\times T^{1,1}$. By coloring the D-brane worldvolume, we are able to show how, in the string theory, the giant graviton factorizes at its maximal size into two dibaryons - topologically stable D-branes wrapping non-contractible cycles in the $T^{1,1}$. This is related to the structure of the symmetry group of the emergent Klebanov-Witten gauge theory being a product - $SU(N) \times SU(N)$ instead of the canonical $SU(N)$. Finally, we complete this study …
