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Main Authors: Bena, Iosif, Dulac, Raphaël, Martinec, Emil J., Shigemori, Masaki, Turton, David, Warner, Nicholas P.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.10977
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author Bena, Iosif
Dulac, Raphaël
Martinec, Emil J.
Shigemori, Masaki
Turton, David
Warner, Nicholas P.
author_facet Bena, Iosif
Dulac, Raphaël
Martinec, Emil J.
Shigemori, Masaki
Turton, David
Warner, Nicholas P.
contents In AdS$_3$/CFT$_2$ duality, there are large families of smooth, horizonless microstate geometries that correspond to heavy pure states of the dual CFT. The metric and fluxes are complicated functions of up to five coordinates. There are also many duals of heavy pure states that cannot be described in supergravity, but only admit a worldsheet description. Extracting the physical properties of these solutions is technically challenging. In this paper, we show that there are much simpler effective descriptions of these solutions that capture many of their stringy and geometrical features, at the price of sacrificing supergravity smoothness. In particular, the effective description of some families of superstrata, and of certain worldsheet solutions, is given by easy-to-construct three-center solutions. For example, the effective description of a superstratum with a long AdS$_2$ throat is a scaling, three-center solution in which the momentum wave is collapsed to a singular source at one of the three centers. This also highlights how momentum migrates away from the supertube locus in the back-reacted geometry. Our results suggest that effective descriptions can be extended to more general microstates, and that many singular multi-center solutions can in fact correspond to effective descriptions of smooth horizonless microstructure.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2508_10977
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Effective Microstructure
Bena, Iosif
Dulac, Raphaël
Martinec, Emil J.
Shigemori, Masaki
Turton, David
Warner, Nicholas P.
High Energy Physics - Theory
In AdS$_3$/CFT$_2$ duality, there are large families of smooth, horizonless microstate geometries that correspond to heavy pure states of the dual CFT. The metric and fluxes are complicated functions of up to five coordinates. There are also many duals of heavy pure states that cannot be described in supergravity, but only admit a worldsheet description. Extracting the physical properties of these solutions is technically challenging. In this paper, we show that there are much simpler effective descriptions of these solutions that capture many of their stringy and geometrical features, at the price of sacrificing supergravity smoothness. In particular, the effective description of some families of superstrata, and of certain worldsheet solutions, is given by easy-to-construct three-center solutions. For example, the effective description of a superstratum with a long AdS$_2$ throat is a scaling, three-center solution in which the momentum wave is collapsed to a singular source at one of the three centers. This also highlights how momentum migrates away from the supertube locus in the back-reacted geometry. Our results suggest that effective descriptions can be extended to more general microstates, and that many singular multi-center solutions can in fact correspond to effective descriptions of smooth horizonless microstructure.
title Effective Microstructure
topic High Energy Physics - Theory
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.10977