D3-brane shells to black branes on the Coulomb branch

Abstract

We use the AdS/CFT duality to study the special point on the Coulomb branch of ${\cal N}=4$ SU(N) gauge theory which corresponds to a spherically symmetric shell of D3-branes. This point is of interest both because the spacetime region inside the shell is flat, and because this configuration gives a very simple example of the transition between D-branes in the perturbative string regime and the non-perturbative regime of black holes. We discuss how this geometry is described in the dual gauge theory, through its effect on the two-point functions and Wilson loops. In the calculation of the two-point function, we stress the importance of absorption by the branes.

Figures (2)

• Figure 1: Penrose diagram of the near-horizon spacetime with a spherically symmetric shell.
• Figure 2: A proposed Penrose diagram for the collapse of a three-brane shell to form a non-extremal black three-brane. Note that the singularity forms at $r=r_- >0$.