Thermal decay without information loss in horizonless microstate geometries

Journal Article · 14 November 2019 · SciPost Physics

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21468/scipostphys.7.5.063 · OSTI ID:1602089

Bena, Iosif ^[1]; Heidmann, Pierre ^[1]; Monten, Ruben ^[1]; Warner, Nicholas ^[1]

---

1. Universite Paris-Saclay, Orsay (France). Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA). Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS). L'Institut de physique théorique

We develop a new hybrid WKB technique to compute boundary-to-boundary scalar Green functions in asymptotically-AdS backgrounds in which the scalar wave equation is separable and is explicitly solvable in the asymptotic region. We apply this technique to a family of six-dimensional $\frac{1}{8}$-BPS asymptotically AdS ${}_3\times$S ${}^3$ horizonless geometries that have the same charges and angular momenta asa D1-D5-P black hole with a large horizon area. At large and intermediate distances, these geometries very closely approximate the extremal-BTZ $\times$S ${}^3$geometry of the black hole, but instead of having an event horizon, these geometries have a smooth highly-red shifted global-AdS ${}_3\times$S ${}^3$cap in the IR. We show that the response function of a scalar probe, in momentum space, is essentially given by the pole structure of the highly-redshifted global-AdS ${}_3$ modulated by the BTZ response function. In position space, this translates into a sharp exponential black-hole-like decay for times shorter than $N_1{N}_5$, followed by the emergence of evenly spaced “echoes from the cap,” with period $~N_1{N}_5$. Our result shows that horizonless microstate geometries can have the same thermal decay as black holes without the associated information loss.

• Research Organization: Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC)
• Grant/Contract Number: SC0011687
• OSTI ID: 1602089
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 1802250
• Journal Information: SciPost Physics, Vol. 7, Issue 5; ISSN 2542-4653
• Publisher: SciPost FoundationCopyright Statement
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English