Comments on the Thermodynamics of Little String Theory

TL;DR

This paper investigates the high energy thermodynamics of Little String Theory using holography, revealing an instability due to a negative coefficient in the entropy-energy relation and proposing a mode condensation at high temperatures.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of the entropy-energy relation and identifies a localized mode near the horizon that indicates thermodynamic instability.

Findings

Entropy scales as $S=eta_H E + ext{logarithmic correction}$

High energy thermodynamics is unstable due to negative $eta_H$ coefficient

A localized horizon mode condenses at high temperature

Abstract

We study the high energy thermodynamics of Little String Theory, using its holographic description. This leads to the entropy-energy relation $S=\beta_H E+\alpha\log E+O(1/E)$. We compute $\alpha$ and show that it is negative; as a consequence, the high energy thermodynamics is unstable. We exhibit a mode localized near the horizon of the black brane, which has winding number one around Euclidean time and a mass that vanishes at large $E$ (or $\beta\to\beta_H$). We argue that the high temperature phase of the theory involves condensation of this mode.