Physical constraints on the Maldacena-Shenker-Stanford chaos-bound in black hole spacetimes

TL;DR

This paper develops a self-consistent framework to analyze chaos bounds near black holes, clarifying previous contradictions and identifying genuine violations due to curvature effects.

Contribution

It introduces a method to fix angular momentum from geometry, distinguishing between parameter-induced and curvature-induced chaos-bound violations.

Findings

Inconsistent parameter choices caused apparent chaos bound violations.

Genuine violations occur at high charge-to-mass ratios due to curvature effects.

The framework helps differentiate physical from apparent chaos violations.

Abstract

Chaotic motion near black holes has recently been examined through the lens of the Maldacena-Shenker-Stanford (MSS) chaos-bound, but reported violations remain contradictory. A significant source of ambiguity stems from treating the particle angular momentum as an independently adjustable parameter instead of as a quantity fixed by the circular-orbit conditions. We develop a constrained framework in which the angular momentum is determined self-consistently from the geometry. Applied to the charged Kiselev black hole, this framework shows that certain previously reported violations of the chaos bound can be attributed to inconsistent parameter choices rather than to intrinsic curvature effects. By extending the analysis to geometries containing higher-order curvature terms, we find genuine chaos-bound violations at large charge-to-mass ratios, originating from curvature corrections rather than orbital parameters. Our approach, therefore, provides a systematic means to distinguish between parameter-induced (apparent) and curvature-induced (physical) violations in Einstein gravity and its extensions.