Thermal decay without information loss in horizonless microstate geometries

Journal Article · 14 November 2019 · SciPost Physics Proceedings

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

Bena, Iosif ^[1]; Heidmann, Pierre ^[1]; Monten, Ruben ^[1]; Warner, Nicholas ^[2]

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1. L'Institut de physique théorique
2. L'Institut de physique théorique, University of Southern California

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} $\frac{1}{8}$ -BPS asymptotically AdS _3\,\times\, ${}_3\times$ S ^3 ${}^3$ horizonless geometries that have the same charges and angular momenta as a D1-D5-P black hole with a large horizon area. At large and intermediate distances, these geometries very closely approximate the extremal-BTZ \,\times\, $\times$ S ^3 ${}^3$ geometry of the black hole, but instead of having an event horizon, these geometries have a smooth highly-redshifted global-AdS _3\,\times\, ${}_3\times$ S ^3 ${}^3$ 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 ${}_3$ 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 $N_1{N}_5$ , followed by the emergence of evenly spaced “echoes from the cap,” with period \sim N_1 N_5 $\sim N_1{N}_5$ . 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; USDOE Office of Science (SC)
• Grant/Contract Number: SC0011687
• OSTI ID: 1602089
• Journal Information: SciPost Physics Proceedings, Journal Name: SciPost Physics Proceedings Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 7; ISSN 2542-4653
• Publisher: Stichting SciPostCopyright Statement
• Country of Publication: Netherlands
• Language: English