Perturbations of Black p-Branes

We consider black $p$-brane solutions of the low energy string action, computing scalar perturbations. Using standard methods, we derive the wave equations obeyed by the perturbations and treat them analytically and numerically. We have found that tensorial perturbations obtained via a gauge-invariant formalism leads to the same results as scalar perturbations. No instability has been found. Asymptotically, these solutions typically reduce to a $AdS_{(p+2)}\times S^{(8-p)}$ space, which, in the framework of Maldacena's conjecture, can be regarded as a gravitational dual to a conformal field theory defined in a $(p+1)$-dimensional flat space-time. The results presented open the possibility of a better understanding the AdS/CFT correspondence, as originally formulated in terms of the relation among brane structures and gauge theories.