D1-D5-P microstates at the cap

TL;DR

This paper identifies the conformal field theory (CFT) description of certain supersymmetric D1-D5-P microstate geometries, including those with conical defects, by matching excitation spectra and generalizing spectral flow parameters.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed CFT interpretation of a broad class of D1-D5-P microstate geometries, extending known configurations with fractional spectral flow.

Findings

Exact agreement between gravity and CFT excitation spectra.

Generalization of spectral flow from integer to fractional values.

Identification of the CFT description for geometries with conical defects.

Abstract

The geometries describing D1-D5-P bound states in string theory have three regions: flat asymptotics, an anti-de Sitter throat, and a 'cap' region at the bottom of the throat. We identify the CFT description of a known class of supersymmetric D1-D5-P microstate geometries which describe degrees of freedom in the cap region. The class includes both regular solutions and solutions with conical defects, and generalizes configurations with known CFT descriptions: a parameter related to spectral flow in the CFT is generalized from integer to fractional values. We provide strong evidence for this identification by comparing the massless scalar excitation spectrum between gravity and CFT and finding exact agreement.