Non-Supersymmetric Charged Domain Walls

We present general non-supersymmtric domain wall solutions with non-trivial scalar and gauge fields for gauged five-dimensional N=2 supergravity coupled to abelian vector multiplets.Comment: 11 pages, one ref. added. To appear in Physics Letters

Supertwistors as Quarks of SU(2,2|4)

The GS superstring on AdS_5 x S^5 has a nonlinearly realized, spontaneously broken SU(2,2|4) symmetry. Here we introduce a two-dimensional model in which the unbroken SU(2,2|4) symmetry is linearly realized. The basic variables are supertwistors, which transform in the fundamental representation of this supergroup. The quantization of this supertwistor model leads to the complete oscillator construction of the unitary irreducible representations of the centrally extended SU(2,2|4). They include the states of d=4 SYM theory, massless and KK states of AdS_5 supergravity, and the descendants on AdS_5 of the standard massive string states, which form intermediate and long supermultiplets. We present examples of such multiplets and discuss possible states of solitonic and (p,q) strings.Comment: 12 pages, LaTeX, 1 EPS figur

BPS black holes, quantum attractor flows and automorphic forms

We propose a program for counting microstates of four-dimensional BPS black holes in N >= 2 supergravities with symmetric-space valued scalars by exploiting the symmetries of timelike reduction to three dimensions. Inspired by the equivalence between the four dimensional attractor flow and geodesic flow on the three-dimensional scalar manifold, we radially quantize stationary, spherically symmetric BPS geometries. Connections between the topological string amplitude, attractor wave function, the Ooguri-Strominger-Vafa conjecture and the theory of automorphic forms suggest that black hole degeneracies are counted by Fourier coefficients of modular forms for the three-dimensional U-duality group, associated to special "unipotent" representations which appear in the supersymmetric Hilbert space of the quantum attractor flow.Comment: 9 pages, revtex; v2: references added and typos correcte

Minimal unitary representation of SU(2,2) and its deformations as massless conformal fields and their supersymmetric extensions

We study the minimal unitary representation (minrep) of SO(4,2) over an Hilbert space of functions of three variables, obtained by quantizing its quasiconformal action on a five dimensional space. The minrep of SO(4,2), which coincides with the minrep of SU(2,2) similarly constructed, corresponds to a massless conformal scalar in four spacetime dimensions. There exists a one-parameter family of deformations of the minrep of SU(2,2). For positive (negative) integer values of the deformation parameter \zeta one obtains positive energy unitary irreducible representations corresponding to massless conformal fields transforming in (0,\zeta/2) ((-\zeta/2,0)) representation of the SL(2,C) subgroup. We construct the supersymmetric extensions of the minrep of SU(2,2) and its deformations to those of SU(2,2|N). The minimal unitary supermultiplet of SU(2,2|4), in the undeformed case, simply corresponds to the massless N=4 Yang-Mills supermultiplet in four dimensions. For each given non-zero integer value of \zeta, one obtains a unique supermultiplet of massless conformal fields of higher spin. For SU(2,2|4) these supermultiplets are simply the doubleton supermultiplets studied in arXiv:hep-th/9806042.Comment: Revised with an extended introduction and additional references. Typos corrected. 49 pages; Latex fil

Explicit Orbit Classification of Reducible Jordan Algebras and Freudenthal Triple Systems

We determine explicit orbit representatives of reducible Jordan algebras and of their corresponding Freudenthal triple systems. This work has direct application to the classification of extremal black hole solutions of N = 2, 4 locally supersymmetric theories of gravity coupled to an arbitrary number of Abelian vector multiplets in D = 4, 5 space-time dimensions.Comment: 18 pages. Updated to match published versio

Partition Functions, the Bekenstein Bound and Temperature Inversion in Anti-de Sitter Space and its Conformal Boundary

We reformulate the Bekenstein bound as the requirement of positivity of the Helmholtz free energy at the minimum value of the function L=E- S/(2\pi R), where R is some measure of the size of the system. The minimum of L occurs at the temperature T=1/(2\pi R). In the case of n-dimensional anti-de Sitter spacetime, the rather poorly defined size R acquires a precise definition in terms of the AdS radius l, with R=l/(n-2). We previously found that the Bekenstein bound holds for all known black holes in AdS. However, in this paper we show that the Bekenstein bound is not generally valid for free quantum fields in AdS, even if one includes the Casimir energy. Some other aspects of thermodynamics in anti-de Sitter spacetime are briefly touched upon.Comment: Latex, 32 page

Stable de Sitter Vacua in 4 Dimensional Supergravity Originating from 5 Dimensions

The five dimensional stable de Sitter ground states in N=2 supergravity obtained by gauging SO(1,1) symmetry of the real symmetric scalar manifold (in particular a generic Jordan family manifold of the vector multiplets) simultaneously with a subgroup R_s of the R-symmetry group descend to four dimensional de Sitter ground states under certain conditions. First, the holomorphic section in four dimensions has to be chosen carefully by using the symplectic freedom in four dimensions; and second, a group contraction is necessary to bring the potential into a desired form. Under these conditions, stable de Sitter vacua can be obtained in dimensionally reduced theories (from 5D to 4D) if the semi-direct product of SO(1,1) with R^(1,1) together with a simultaneous R_s is gauged. We review the stable de Sitter vacua in four dimensions found in earlier literature for N=2 Yang-Mills Einstein supergravity with SO(2,1) x R_s gauge group in a symplectic basis that comes naturally after dimensional reduction. Although this particular gauge group does not descend directly from five dimensions, we show that, its contraction does. Hence, two different theories overlap in certain limits. Examples of stable de Sitter vacua are given for the cases: (i) R_s=U(1)_R, (ii) R_s=SU(2)_R, (iii) N=2 Yang-Mills/Einstein Supergravity theory coupled to a universal hypermultiplet. We conclude with a discussion regarding the extension of our results to supergravity theories with more general homogeneous scalar manifolds.Comment: 54 page

Negative Energy in String Theory and Cosmic Censorship Violation

We find asymptotically anti de Sitter solutions in N=8 supergravity which have negative total energy. This is possible since the boundary conditions required for the positive energy theorem are stronger than those required for finite mass (and allowed by string theory). But stability of the anti de Sitter vacuum is still ensured by the positivity of a modified energy, which includes an extra surface term. Some of the negative energy solutions describe classical evolution of nonsingular initial data to naked singularities. Since there is an open set of such solutions, cosmic censorship is violated generically in supergravity. Using the dual field theory description, we argue that these naked singularities will be resolved in the full string theory.Comment: 23 pages, 2 figures, v2: argument for forming naked singularities clarified, references adde

Automorphic Instanton Partition Functions on Calabi-Yau Threefolds

We survey recent results on quantum corrections to the hypermultiplet moduli space M in type IIA/B string theory on a compact Calabi-Yau threefold X, or, equivalently, the vector multiplet moduli space in type IIB/A on X x S^1. Our main focus lies on the problem of resumming the infinite series of D-brane and NS5-brane instantons, using the mathematical machinery of automorphic forms. We review the proposal that whenever the low-energy theory in D=3 exhibits an arithmetic "U-duality" symmetry G(Z) the total instanton partition function arises from a certain unitary automorphic representation of G, whose Fourier coefficients reproduce the BPS-degeneracies. For D=4, N=2 theories on R^3 x S^1 we argue that the relevant automorphic representation falls in the quaternionic discrete series of G, and that the partition function can be realized as a holomorphic section on the twistor space Z over M. We also offer some comments on the close relation with N=2 wall crossing formulae.Comment: 25 pages, contribution to the proceedings of the workshop "Algebra, Geometry and Mathematical Physics", Tjarno, Sweden, 25-30 October, 201

Non-extremal black holes from the generalised r-map

We review the timelike dimensional reduction of a class of five-dimensional theories that generalises 5D, N = 2 supergravity coupled to vector multiplets. As an application we construct instanton solutions to the four-dimensional Euclidean theory, and investigate the criteria for solutions to lift to static non-extremal black holes in five dimensions. We focus specifically on two classes of models: STU-like models, and models with a block diagonal target space metric. For STU-like models the second order equations of motion of the four-dimensional theory can be solved explicitly, and we obtain the general solution. For block diagonal models we find a restricted class of solutions, where the number of independent scalar fields depends on the number of blocks. When lifting these solutions to five dimensions we show, by explicit calculation, that one obtains static non-extremal black holes with scalar fields that take finite values on the horizon only if the number of integration constants reduces by exactly half.Comment: 22 pages. Based on talk by OV at "Black Objects in Supergravity School" (BOSS2011), INFN, Frascati, Italy, 9-13 May, 201