Black Hole Formation in AdS and Thermalization on the Boundary

TL;DR

This paper explores black hole formation in AdS space through shell collapse and its holographic interpretation as thermalization in the boundary CFT, using 2-point functions to analyze the approach to equilibrium.

Contribution

It provides a holographic analysis of gravitational collapse and proposes a connection between shell dynamics and kinetic theory of the boundary CFT at strong coupling.

Findings

2-point functions reveal excitation spectrum during collapse

Collapse dynamics characterize thermalization process

Speculation on kinetic equations as dual to shell motion

Abstract

We investigate black hole formation by a spherically collapsing thin shell of matter in AdS space. This process has been suggested to have a holographic interpretation as thermalization of the CFT on the boundary of the AdS space. The AdS/CFT duality relates the shell in the bulk to an off-equilibrium state of the boundary theory which evolves towards a thermal equilibrium when the shell collapses to a black hole. We use 2-point functions to obtain information about the spectrum of excitations in the off-equilibrium state, and discuss how it characterizes the approach towards thermal equilibrium. The full holographic interpretation of the gravitational collapse would require a kinetic theory of the CFT at strong coupling. We speculate that the kinetic equations should be interpreted as a holographic dual of the equation of motion of the collapsing shell.