Spatially modulated instabilities of magnetic black branes

TL;DR

This paper studies spatially modulated instabilities in magnetic black branes within various AdS backgrounds, revealing new phases with broken translation symmetry and constructing explicit solutions in supergravity theories.

Contribution

It identifies and analyzes spatially modulated instabilities in magnetic black branes across different AdS backgrounds, including new explicit solutions in supergravity.

Findings

Magnetically charged black branes can have instabilities leading to current density waves.

Constructed new magnetic black brane solutions in D=5 SO(6) gauged supergravity.

Discovered dual phases in N=4 SYM with broken translation symmetry.

Abstract

We investigate spatially modulated instabilities of magnetically charged $AdS_{2}\times\mathbb{R}^2$, $AdS_{3}\times\mathbb{R}^2$ and $AdS_{2}\times\mathbb{R}^3$ backgrounds in a broad class of theories, including those arising from KK reductions of ten and eleven dimensional supergravity. We show that magnetically charged black brane solutions in D=4,5 spacetime dimensions, whose zero temperature near horizon limit approach these backgrounds, can have instabilities that are dual to phases with current density waves that spontaneously break translation symmetry. Our examples include spatially modulated instabilities for a new class of magnetic black brane solutions of D=5 SO(6) gauged supergravity, that we construct in closed form, which are dual to new phases of N=4 SYM theory.