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Title: Probing supersymmetric black holes with surface defects
A<sc>bstract</sc> It has long been conjectured that the largeNdeconfinement phase transition of$$ \mathcal{N} $$ N = 4 SU(N) super-Yang-Mills corresponds via AdS/CFT to the Hawking-Page transition in which black holes dominate the thermal ensemble, and quantitative evidence of this has come through the recent matching of the superconformal index of$$ \frac{1}{16} $$ 1 16 -BPS states to the supersymmetric black hole entropy. We introduce the half-BPS Gukov-Witten surface defect as a probe of the superconformal index, which also serves as an order parameter for the deconfinement transition. This can be studied directly in field theory as a modification of the usual unitary matrix model or in the dual description as a D3-brane probe in the background of a (complex) supersymmetric black hole. Using a saddle point approximation, we determine our defect index in the largeNlimit as a simple function of the chemical potentials and show independently that it is reproduced by the renormalized action of the brane in the black hole background. Along the way, we also comment on the Cardy limit and the thermodynamics of the D3-brane in the generalized ensemble. The defect index sharply distinguishes between the confining and the deconfining phases of the gauge theory and thus is a supersymmetric non-perturbative order parameter for these largeNphase transitions which deserves further investigation. Finally, our work provides an example where the properties of a black hole coupled to an external system can be analyzed precisely.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2210420
PAR ID:
10632430
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ;
Publisher / Repository:
Springer Nature
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Journal of High Energy Physics
Volume:
2023
Issue:
10
ISSN:
1029-8479
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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