Thermalization in the D1D5 CFT

Samir D. Mathur; Shaun Hampton

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Thermalization in the D1D5 CFT

Shaun Hampton, Samir D. Mathur

High Energy Physics - Theory · Submitted 3 Oct 2019

abstract compiled · 2026-09-23 · no language-model review

The authors' main claim Instead, thermalization should correspond to a new phase after the phase of large redshift, where the infalling object turns into fuzzballs on reaching within planck distance of the horizon.

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What the abstract itself states, as probabilities: claims first 0.04 · states limitation 0.53 · human participants 0.01 · controlled comparison 0.04 · randomized assignment 0.01 · states quantitative result 0.35 · compares with prior results 0.66 · mentions code or data availability 0.02.

The abstract, sentence by sentence

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It is generally agreed that black hole formation in gravity corresponds to thermalization in the dual CFT. It is sometimes argued that if the CFT evolution shows evidence of large redshift in gravity, then we have seen black hole formation in the CFT. We argue that this is not the case: a clock falling towards the horizon increases its redshift but remains intact as a clock; thus it is not `thermalized'. Instead, thermalization should correspond to a new phase after the phase of large redshift, where the infalling object turns into fuzzballs on reaching within planck distance of the horizon. We compute simple examples of the scattering vertex in the D1D5 CFT which, after many iterations, would lead to thermalization. An initial state made of two left-moving and two right-moving excitations corresponds, in gravity, to two gravitons heading towards each other. The thermalization vertex in the CFT breaks these excitations into multiple excitations on the left and right sides; we compute the amplitudes for several of these processes. We find secular terms that grow as $t^2$ instead of oscillating with $t$; we conjecture that this may be a feature of processes leading to thermalization.

background contribution method result interpretation main claim

What the classifier reports for each sentence. The number is the probability it gave the label.
#	sentence	role	the authors' own work	states the main conclusion	strength
s0	It is generally agreed that black hole formation in gravity corresponds to thermalization in the dual CFT.	background 1.00	0.03	0.03	asserted 0.96
s1	It is sometimes argued that if the CFT evolution shows evidence of large redshift in gravity, then we have seen black hole formation in the CFT.	background 0.98	0.04	0.03	hedged possibility 0.82
s2	We argue that this is not the case: a clock falling towards the horizon increases its redshift but remains intact as a clock; thus it is not `thermalized'.	interpretation 0.40	0.21	0.37	asserted 1.00
s3	Instead, thermalization should correspond to a new phase after the phase of large redshift, where the infalling object turns into fuzzballs on reaching within planck distance of the horizon.	interpretation 0.86	0.30	0.56	asserted 0.90
s4	We compute simple examples of the scattering vertex in the D1D5 CFT which, after many iterations, would lead to thermalization.	contribution 0.80	0.94	0.09	asserted 0.95
s5	An initial state made of two left-moving and two right-moving excitations corresponds, in gravity, to two gravitons heading towards each other.	method 0.53	0.22	0.03	asserted 1.00
s6	The thermalization vertex in the CFT breaks these excitations into multiple excitations on the left and right sides; we compute the amplitudes for several of these processes.	contribution 0.65	0.94	0.07	asserted 1.00
s7	We find secular terms that grow as $t^2$ instead of oscillating with $t$; we conjecture that this may be a feature of processes leading to thermalization.	result 0.81	0.95	0.11	speculative 0.60

What kind of paper the classifier reports this is: theoretical result 0.78 · evidence from proof or derivation 0.51.

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Every quoted sentence on this record is the authors'. Every label is from Pith's closed vocabulary, with the probability shown beside it. Every number in the measurements table is the authors', checked by code. Record as JSON

The paper

Original abstract

It is generally agreed that black hole formation in gravity corresponds to thermalization in the dual CFT. It is sometimes argued that if the CFT evolution shows evidence of large redshift in gravity, then we have seen black hole formation in the CFT. We argue that this is not the case: a clock falling towards the horizon increases its redshift but remains intact as a clock; thus it is not `thermalized'. Instead, thermalization should correspond to a new phase after the phase of large redshift, where the infalling object turns into fuzzballs on reaching within planck distance of the horizon. We compute simple examples of the scattering vertex in the D1D5 CFT which, after many iterations, would lead to thermalization. An initial state made of two left-moving and two right-moving excitations corresponds, in gravity, to two gravitons heading towards each other. The thermalization vertex in the CFT breaks these excitations into multiple excitations on the left and right sides; we compute the amplitudes for several of these processes. We find secular terms that grow as $t^2$ instead of oscillating with $t$; we conjecture that this may be a feature of processes leading to thermalization.

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References

Forward citations

Cited by 2 Pith papers

Reviewed papers in the Pith corpus that reference this work. Sorted by Pith novelty score. Full citation record

Fuzzballs and Microstate Geometries: Black-Hole Structure in String Theory
hep-th 2022-04 conditional novelty 2.0 of 10

String theory replaces black holes with horizonless fuzzballs, and this, the authors argue, resolves the black-hole information paradox.
Snowmass White Paper: Micro- and Macro-Structure of Black Holes
hep-th 2022-03 conditional novelty 2.0 of 10

String theory's fuzzball and microstate geometry programs recast black holes as horizonless, singularity-free objects, and this white paper argues that this is the most promising route to the information paradox.

How the literature uses it

14 arXiv papers cite this in 33 sentences

Each citing sentence is taken from the citing paper's LaTeX source and typed by Pith's classifier. A label appears at probability 0.8 or more (0.95 for support), a contest at 0.7 or more; the quoted words are the citing authors'. How each label was checked · JSON

Papers citing it · 18 sentences without a confident label

Compares with it 1 paper

This is in contrast to the CFT dual of a graviton probe moving within empty AdS [ref] .

The Dual of a Tidal Force in the D1D5 CFT · Discussion · 1.00

Cites it as support 1 paper

* The ultra-relativistic infall speeds of infalling particles, combined with the tiny deviations of microstate geometries from black holes, causes a probe to experience string-scale tidal forces [ref] .

Snowmass White Paper: Micro- and Macro-Structure of Black Holes · Black-hole-like behavior · 1.00

Cites it as background 10 papers

The amplitude of the process is studied in [ref] .

A freely falling graviton in the D1D5 CFT · The Splitting Process · 0.87
The CFT dual of a free falling graviton in AdS was studied in the context of the D1D5 CFT [ref] .

The Dual of a Tidal Force in the D1D5 CFT · Introduction · 0.98
For additional works involving deformations away from the orbifold point see [ref] .

Bootstrapping the effect of the twist operator in the D1D5 CFT · Introduction · 0.99

What it cites · 18 sentences without a confident label

Uses the method or tool of 2 papers

The techniques used to compute these contractions are given in [ref] .

Full action of two deformation operators in the D1D5 CFT · Procedure for Computing Amplitudes · 0.98
These techniques are combined to compute $𝒜^i→f_t$ which is given in detail in [ref] .

Understanding Black Hole Formation in String Theory · Procedure for Computing Amplitudes · 0.91

Cites as background 20 papers

For more details on fuzzballs see [ref] .

Fuzzballs with internal excitations · Black hole formation in the fuzzball paradigm · 1.00
For more details on fuzzballs see [ref] .

Modave Lectures on Fuzzballs and Emission from the D1-D5 System · Black hole formation in the fuzzball paradigm · 1.00
For more details on fuzzballs see [ref] .

AdS/CFT duality and the black hole information paradox · Black hole formation in the fuzzball paradigm · 1.00

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