Ali Seraj

Symplectic and Killing symmetries of AdS3 gravity: holographic vs boundary gravitons

A bstractThe set of solutions to the AdS3 Einstein gravity with Brown-Henneaux boundary conditions is known to be a family of metrics labeled by two arbitrary periodic functions, respectively left and right-moving. It turns out that there exists an appropriate presymplectic form which vanishes on-shell. This promotes this set of metrics to a phase space in which the Brown-Henneaux asymptotic symmetries become symplectic symmetries in the bulk of spacetime. Moreover, any element in the phase space admits two global Killing vectors. We show that the conserved charges associated with these Killing vectors commute with the Virasoro symplectic symmetry algebra, extending the Virasoro symmetry algebra with two U(1) generators. We discuss that any element in the phase space falls into the coadjoint orbits of the Virasoro algebras and that each orbit is labeled by the U(1) Killing charges. Upon setting the right-moving function to zero and restricting the choice of orbits, one can take a near-horizon decoupling limit which preserves a chiral half of the symplectic symmetries. Here we show two distinct but equivalent ways in which the chiral Virasoro symplectic symmetries in the near-horizon geometry can be obtained as a limit of the bulk symplectic symmetries.

Wiggling throat of extremal black holes

A bstractWe construct the classical phase space of geometries in the near-horizon region of vacuum extremal black holes as announced in [arXiv:1503.07861]. Motivated by the uniqueness theorems for such solutions and for perturbations around them, we build a family of metrics depending upon a single periodic function defined on the torus spanned by the U(1) isometry directions. We show that this set of metrics is equipped with a consistent symplectic structure and hence defines a phase space. The phase space forms a representation of an infinite dimensional algebra of so-called symplectic symmetries. The symmetry algebra is an extension of the Virasoro algebra whose central extension is the black hole entropy. We motivate the choice of diffeomorphisms leading to the phase space and explicitly derive the symplectic structure, the algebra of symplectic symmetries and the corresponding conserved charges. We also discuss a formulation of these charges with a Liouville type stress-tensor on the torus defined by the U(1) isometries and outline possible future directions.

Extremal rotating black holes in the near-horizon limit: Phase space and symmetry algebra

Abstract We construct the NHEG phase space, the classical phase space of Near-Horizon Extremal Geometries with fixed angular momenta and entropy, and with the largest symmetry algebra. We focus on vacuum solutions to d dimensional Einstein gravity. Each element in the phase space is a geometry with SL ( 2 , R ) × U ( 1 ) d − 3 isometries which has vanishing SL ( 2 , R ) and constant U ( 1 ) charges. We construct an on-shell vanishing symplectic structure, which leads to an infinite set of symplectic symmetries. In four spacetime dimensions, the phase space is unique and the symmetry algebra consists of the familiar Virasoro algebra, while in d > 4 dimensions the symmetry algebra, the NHEG algebra, contains infinitely many Virasoro subalgebras. The nontrivial central term of the algebra is proportional to the black hole entropy. The conserved charges are given by the Fourier decomposition of a Liouville-type stress-tensor which depends upon a single periodic function of d − 3 angular variables associated with the U ( 1 ) isometries. This phase space and in particular its symmetries can serve as a basis for a semiclassical description of extremal rotating black hole microstates.

NHEG mechanics: laws of near horizon extremal geometry (thermo)dynamics

A bstractNear Horizon Extremal Geometries (NHEG) are solutions to gravity theories with SL(2, ℝ) × U(1)N (for some N) symmetry, are smooth geometries and have no event horizon, unlike black holes. Following the ideas by R. M. Wald, we derive laws of NHEG dynamics, the analogs of laws of black hole dynamics for the NHEG. Despite the absence of horizon in the NHEG, one may associate an entropy to the NHEG, as a Noether-Wald conserved charge. We work out “entropy” and “entropy perturbation” laws, which are respectively universal relations between conserved Noether charges corresponding to the NHEG and a system probing the NHEG. Our entropy law is closely related to Sen’s entropy function. We also discuss whether the laws of NHEG dynamics can be obtained from the laws of black hole thermodynamics in the extremal limit.

Multipole charge conservation and implications on electromagnetic radiation

A bstractIt is shown that conserved charges associated with a specific subclass of gauge symmetries of Maxwell electrodynamics are proportional to the well known electric mul-tipole moments. The symmetries are residual gauge transformations surviving the Lorenz gauge, with nontrivial conserved charge at spatial infinity. These “Multipole charges” receive contributions both from the charged matter and electromagnetic fields. The former is nothing but the electric multipole moment of the source. In a stationary configuration, there is a novel equipartition relation between the two contributions. The multipole charge, while conserved, can freely interpolate between the source and the electromagnetic field, and therefore can be propagated with the radiation. Using the multipole charge conservation, we obtain infinite number of constraints over the radiation produced by the dynamics of charged matter.

Strolling along gauge theory vacua

A bstractWe consider classical, pure Yang-Mills theory in a box. We show how a set of static electric fields that solve the theory in an adiabatic limit correspond to geodesic motion on the space of vacua, equipped with a particular Riemannian metric that we identify. The vacua are generated by spontaneously broken global gauge symmetries, leading to an infinite number of conserved momenta of the geodesic motion. We show that these correspond to the soft multipole charges of Yang-Mills theory.

Gravitational multipole moments from Noether charges

A bstractWe define the mass and current multipole moments for an arbitrary theory of gravity in terms of canonical Noether charges associated with specific residual transformations in canonical harmonic gauge, which we call multipole symmetries. We show that our definition exactly matches Thorne’s mass and current multipole moments in Einstein gravity, which are defined in terms of metric components. For radiative configurations, the total multipole charges — including the contributions from the source and the radiation — are given by surface charges at spatial infinity, while the source multipole moments are naturally identified by surface integrals in the near-zone or, alternatively, from a regularization of the Noether charges at null infinity. The conservation of total multipole charges is used to derive the variation of source multipole moments in the near-zone in terms of the flux of multipole charges at null infinity.

Soft charges and electric-magnetic duality

A bstractThe main focus of this work is to study magnetic soft charges of the four dimensional Maxwell theory. Imposing appropriate asymptotic falloff conditions, we compute the electric and magnetic soft charges and their algebra both at spatial and at null infinity. While the commutator of two electric or two magnetic soft charges vanish, the electric and magnetic soft charges satisfy a complex U(1) current algebra. This current algebra through Sugawara construction yields two U(1) Kac-Moody algebras. We repeat the charge analysis in the electric-magnetic duality-symmetric Maxwell theory and construct the duality-symmetric phase space where the electric and magnetic soft charges generate the respective boundary gauge transformations. We show that the generator of the electric-magnetic duality and the electric and magnetic soft charges form infinite copies of iso(2) algebra. Moreover, we study the algebra of charges associated with the global Poincaré symmetry of the background Minkowski spacetime and the soft charges. We discuss physical meaning and implication of our charges and their algebra.