On Field Theory Thermalization from Gravitational Collapse

TL;DR

This paper investigates how gravitational collapse of a scalar field in anti-de Sitter space models thermalization in the dual field theory, analyzing horizon formation and its dependence on initial conditions.

Contribution

It provides a detailed numerical study of apparent horizon formation during gravitational collapse in AdS, linking it to thermalization in the dual field theory.

Findings

Apparent horizon formation depends on initial scalar field profile.

The time and radius of horizon formation are characterized.

Insights into dual field theory thermalization are discussed.

Abstract

Motivated by its field theory interpretation, we study gravitational collapse of a minimally coupled massless scalar field in Einstein gravity with a negative cosmological constant. After demonstrating the accuracy of the numerical algorithm for the questions we are interested in, we investigate various aspects of the apparent horizon formation. In particular, we study the time and radius of the apparent horizon formed as functions of the initial Gaussian profile for the scalar field. We comment on several aspects of the dual field theory picture.