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 shape and this `velocity and so completely determinethe dynamics of the black hole. They may be viewed as governing the non-linear dynamics of the light quasi normal modes of Emparan, Suzuki and Tanabe.
We extend the recent work on fluid-gravity correspondence to charged black-branes by determining the metric duals to arbitrary charged fluid configuration up to second order in the boundary derivative expansion. We also derive the energy-momentum ten
sor and the charge current for these configurations up to second order in the boundary derivative expansion. We find a new term in the charge current when there is a bulk Chern-Simons interaction thus resolving an earlier discrepancy between thermodynamics of charged rotating black holes and boundary hydrodynamics. We have also confirmed that all our expressions are covariant under boundary Weyl-transformations as expected.
We determine the most general form of the equations of relativistic superfluid hydrodynamics consistent with Lorentz invariance, time-reversal invariance, the Onsager principle and the second law of thermodynamics at first order in the derivative exp
ansion. Once parity is violated, either because the $U(1)$ symmetry is anomalous or as a consequence of a different parity-breaking mechanism, our results deviate from the standard textbook analysis of superfluids. Our general equations require the specification of twenty parameters (such as the viscosity and conductivity). In the limit of small relative superfluid velocities we find a seven parameter set of equations. In the same limit, we have used the AdS/CFT correspondence to compute the parity odd contributions to the superfluid equations of motion for a generic holographic model and have verified that our results are consistent.
Charged asymptotically AdS black branes in five dimensions are sometimes unstable to the condensation of charged scalar fields. For fields of infinite charge and squared mass -4 Herzog was able to analytically determine the phase transition temperatu
re and compute the endpoint of this instability in the neighborhood of the phase transition. We generalize Herzogs construction by perturbing away from infinite charge in an expansion in inverse charge and use the solutions so obtained as input for the fluid gravity map. Our tube wise construction of patched up locally hairy black brane solutions yields a one to one map from the space of solutions of superfluid dynamics to the long wavelength solutions of the Einstein Maxwell system. We obtain explicit expressions for the metric, gauge field and scalar field dual to an arbitrary superfluid flow at first order in the derivative expansion. Our construction allows us to read off the the leading dissipative corrections to the perfect superfluid stress tensor, current and Josephson equations. A general framework for dissipative superfluid dynamics was worked out by Landau and Lifshitz for zero superfluid velocity and generalized to nonzero fluid velocity by Clark and Putterman. Our gravitational results do not fit into the 13 parameter Clark-Putterman framework. Purely within fluid dynamics we present a consistent new generalization of Clark and Puttermans equations to a set of superfluid equations parameterized by 14 dissipative parameters. The results of our gravitational calculation fit perfectly into this enlarged framework. In particular we compute all the dissipative constants for the gravitational superfluid.
We note that the equations of relativistic hydrodynamics reduce to the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations in a particular scaling limit. In this limit boundary metric fluctuations of the underlying relativistic system turn into a forcing function
identical to the action of a background electromagnetic field on the effectively charged fluid. We demonstrate that special conformal symmetries of the parent relativistic theory descend to `accelerated boost symmetries of the Navier-Stokes equations, uncovering a possibly new conformal symmetry structure of these equations. Applying our scaling limit to holographically induced fluid dynamics, we find gravity dual descriptions of an arbitrary solution of the forced non-relativistic incompressible Navier-Stokes equations. In the holographic context we also find a simple forced steady state shear solution to the Navier-Stokes equations, and demonstrate that this solution turns unstable at high enough Reynolds numbers, indicating a possible eventual transition to turbulence.
We use the AdS/CFT correspondence to study the thermalization of a strongly coupled conformal field theory that is forced out of its vacuum by a source that couples to a marginal operator. The source is taken to be of small amplitude and finite durat
ion, but is otherwise an arbitrary function of time. When the field theory lives on $R^{d-1,1}$, the source sets up a translationally invariant wave in the dual gravitational description. This wave propagates radially inwards in $AdS_{d+1}$ space and collapses to form a black brane. Outside its horizon the bulk spacetime for this collapse process may systematically be constructed in an expansion in the amplitude of the source function, and takes the Vaidya form at leading order in the source amplitude. This solution is dual to a remarkably rapid and intriguingly scale dependent thermalization process in the field theory. When the field theory lives on a sphere the resultant wave either slowly scatters into a thermal gas (dual to a glueball type phase in the boundary theory) or rapidly collapses into a black hole (dual to a plasma type phase in the field theory) depending on the time scale and amplitude of the source function. The transition between these two behaviors is sharp and can be tuned to the Choptuik scaling solution in $R^{d,1}$.
We generalise the computations of arXiv:0712.2456 to generate long wavelength, asymptotically locally AdS_5 solutions to the Einstein-dilaton system with a slowly varying boundary dilaton field and a weakly curved boundary metric. Upon demanding regu
larity, our solutions are dual, under the AdS/CFT correspondence, to arbitrary fluid flows in the boundary theory formulated on a weakly curved manifold with a prescribed slowly varying coupling constant. These solutions turn out to be parametrised by four-velocity and temperature fields that are constrained to obey the boundary covariant Navier Stokes equations with a dilaton dependent forcing term. We explicitly evaluate the stress tensor and Lagrangian as a function of the velocity, temperature, coupling constant and curvature fields, to second order in the derivative expansion and demonstrate the Weyl covariance of these expressions. We also construct the event horizon of the dual solutions to second order in the derivative expansion, and use the area form on this event horizon to construct an entropy current for the dual fluid. As a check of our constructions we expand the exactly known solutions for rotating black holes in global AdS_5 in a boundary derivative expansion and find perfect agreement with all our results upto second order. We also find other simple solutions of the forced fluid mechanics equations and discuss their bulk interpretation. Our results may aid in determining a bulk dual to forced flows exhibiting steady state turbulence.
We generalize recent work to construct a map from the conformal Navier Stokes equations with holographically determined transport coefficients, in d spacetime dimensions, to the set of asymptotically locally AdS_{d+1} long wavelength solutions of Ein
steins equations with a negative cosmological constant, for all d>2. We find simple explicit expressions for the stress tensor (slightly generalizing the recent result by Haack and Yarom (arXiv:0806.4602)), the full dual bulk metric and an entropy current of this strongly coupled conformal fluid, to second order in the derivative expansion, for arbitrary d>2. We also rewrite the well known exact solutions for rotating black holes in AdS_{d+1} space in a manifestly fluid dynamical form, generalizing earlier work in d=4. To second order in the derivative expansion, this metric agrees with our general construction of the metric dual to fluid flows.
We present a trace formula for a Witten type Index for superconformal field theories in d=3,5 and 6 dimensions, generalizing a similar recent construction in d=4. We perform a detailed study of the decomposition of long representations into sums of s
hort representations at the unitarity bound to demonstrate that our trace formula yields the most general index (i.e. quantity that is guaranteed to be protected by superconformal symmetry alone) for the corresponding superalgebras. Using the dual gravitational description, we compute our index for the theory on the world volume of N M2 and M5 branes in the large N limit. We also compute our index for recently constructed Chern Simons theories in three dimensions in the large N limit, and find that, in certain cases, this index undergoes a large N phase transition as a function of chemical potentials.
Black branes in AdS5 appear in a four parameter family labeled by their velocity and temperature. Promoting these parameters to Goldstone modes or collective coordinate fields -- arbitrary functions of the coordinates on the boundary of AdS5 -- we us
e Einsteins equations together with regularity requirements and boundary conditions to determine their dynamics. The resultant equations turn out to be those of boundary fluid dynamics, with specific values for fluid parameters. Our analysis is perturbative in the boundary derivative expansion but is valid for arbitrary amplitudes. Our work may be regarded as a derivation of the nonlinear equations of boundary fluid dynamics from gravity. As a concrete application we find an explicit expression for the expansion of this fluid stress tensor including terms up to second order in the derivative expansion.
