Black Hole Instability Induced by a Magnetic Field

In the context of gauge/gravity duality, we find a new black hole instability in asymptotically AdS spaces. On the field theory side, this instability is induced by a magnetic field in the vacuum, in contrast to previous instabilities which occur at finite density. On the gravity side, this corresponds to a spatial component of the gauge field in SU(2) Einstein-Yang-Mills theory, which provides the crucial non-Abelian structure. Our analysis may provide supporting evidence for recent QCD studies of Rho-meson condensation induced by a magnetic field.