English

Black Holes, Shock Waves, and Causality in the AdS/CFT Correspondence

High Energy Physics - Theory 2009-10-31 v2 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology

Abstract

We find the expectation value of the energy-momentum tensor in the CFT corresponding to a moving black hole in AdS. Boosting the black hole to the speed of light, keeping the total energy fixed, yields a gravitational shock wave in AdS. The analogous procedure on the field theory side leads to ``light cone'' states, i.e., states with energy-momentum tensor localized on the light cone. The correspondence between the gravitational shock wave and these light cone states provides a useful tool for testing causality. We show, in several examples, how the CFT reproduces the causal relations in AdS.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.hep-th/9901012,
  title  = {Black Holes, Shock Waves, and Causality in the AdS/CFT Correspondence},
  author = {Gary T. Horowitz and N. Itzhaki},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:hep-th/9901012},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

Minor corrections, references added