Instability of non-supersymmetric smooth geometries

TL;DR

This paper shows that certain smooth, horizonless, non-supersymmetric supergravity solutions with ergoregions are classically unstable and likely decay into supersymmetric states, impacting the fuzzball proposal.

Contribution

It demonstrates the classical instability of non-supersymmetric smooth geometries with ergoregions and discusses their decay pathways, providing insights into microstate structure.

Findings

All studied solutions exhibit classical ergoregion instability.

The solutions are predicted to decay to supersymmetric configurations.

Implications for the fuzzball proposal are discussed.

Abstract

Recently certain non-supersymmetric solutions of type IIb supergravity were constructed [hep-th/0504181], which are everywhere smooth, have no horizons and are thought to describe certain non-BPS microstates of the D1-D5 system. We demonstrate that these solutions are all classically unstable. The instability is a generic feature of horizonless geometries with an ergoregion. We consider the endpoint of this instability and argue that the solutions decay to supersymmetric configurations. We also comment on the implications of the ergoregion instability for Mathur's `fuzzball' proposal.