Black Hole Production from High Energy Scattering in AdS/CFT

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how to model high-energy graviton collisions in AdS/CFT, leading to black hole formation, by constructing specific initial states in ${ m extbf{N}}=4$ SYM theory and analyzing their gravitational duals.

Contribution

It introduces a method to set up initial states in ${ m extbf{N}}=4$ SYM that correspond to high-energy graviton collisions resulting in black holes in AdS, using duality and shock wave techniques.

Findings

Constructed initial states dual to graviton wavepackets in AdS

Showed how to create shock wave geometries from these states

Discussed prospects for studying graviton scattering at strong coupling

Abstract

In this article we show how to set up initial states in ${\cal N} =4$ SYM theory that correspond to high energy graviton collisions, leading to black hole formation in $AdS_5\times S^5$. For this purpose, we study states in the gauge theory that are dual to graviton wavepackets localized at the center of $AdS_5$, and carrying large angular momentum along the $S^5$. These states are created by exciting only the s-wave mode of one of the complex adjoint scalars of SYM. For a single graviton, the state is 1/2 BPS and one can show that it is dual to a linearized 1/2 BPS geometry in the bulk. Exploiting this dictionary, we show how to localize the particle's wavefunciton so that the dual linearized metric has the form of a Aichelburg-Sexl shock wave. One can then put two such shock waves into a head-on collision, which is known to produce a trapped surface. Finally, we discuss the prospect of studying graviton scattering directly at strong coupling in the gauge theory using a reduced model of matrix quantum mechanics.