Time evolution of Einstein-Maxwell-scalar black holes after a thermal quench

TL;DR

This paper uses holographic techniques to study how Einstein-Maxwell-scalar black holes respond dynamically to quenches, revealing phenomena like spontaneous scalarization, descalarization, and transitions between degenerate ground states.

Contribution

It demonstrates the real-time evolution of black holes under quenches, showing spontaneous scalarization and descalarization, and explores the associated dynamical transitions and quasi-normal mode behaviors.

Findings

Spontaneous scalarization occurs after small quenches on unstable black holes.

Stable scalarized black holes can be descalarized with strong quenches.

A threshold quench strength induces a transition between degenerate ground states.

Abstract

We employ the holographic quench technique to drive Einstein-Maxwell-scalar (EMs) black holes out of equilibrium and study the real-time dynamics therein. From the fully nonlinear dynamical simulations, a dynamically unstable Reissner-Nordstr$\ddot{\text{o}}$m anti-de Sitter (RN-AdS) black hole can be scalarized spontaneously after an arbitrarily small quench. On the other hand, a dynamically stable scalarized black hole can be descalarized after a quench of sufficient strength. Interestingly, on the way to descalarization, the scalarized black hole behaves like a holographic superfluid, undergoing a dynamical transition from oscillatory to non-oscillatory decay. Such behaviors are related to the spectrums of quasi-normal modes of scalarized black holes, where the dominant mode migrates toward the imaginary axis with increasing quench strength. In addition, due to the $\mathbb Z_{2}$-symmetry preserved by the model, the ground state is degenerate. We find that there exists a threshold for the quench strength that induces a dynamical transition of the gravitational system from one degenerate ground state to the other. Near the threshold, the gravitational system is attracted to an excited state, that is, a RN-AdS black hole with dynamical instability.