English

Thermodynamics of the Near-Extremal NS5-brane

High Energy Physics - Theory 2008-11-26 v2

Abstract

We consider the thermodynamics of the near-extremal NS5-brane in type IIA string theory. The central tool we use is to map phases of six-dimensional Kaluza-Klein black holes to phases of near-extremal M5-branes with a transverse circle in eleven-dimensional supergravity. By S-duality these phases correspond to phases of the near-extremal type IIA NS5-brane. One of our main results is that in the canonical ensemble the usual near-extremal NS5-brane background, dual to a uniformly smeared near-extremal M5-brane, is subdominant to a new background of near-extremal M5-branes localized on the transverse circle. This new stable phase has a limiting temperature, which lies above the Hagedorn temperature of the usual NS5-brane phase. We discuss the limiting temperature and compare the different behavior of the NS5-brane in the canonical and microcanonical ensembles. We also briefly comment on the thermodynamics of near-extremal Dp-branes on a transverse circle.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.hep-th/0510098,
  title  = {Thermodynamics of the Near-Extremal NS5-brane},
  author = {T. Harmark and N. A. Obers},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:hep-th/0510098},
  year   = {2008}
}

Comments

22 pages, 6 figures. v2: Added clarifying remarks on relation to previous work on thermodynamics of NS5-brane. Refs added