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Cosmic Censorship in a Dual Collider

Marc Aragonès Fontboté1,*, David Mateos2,3,4,†, Guillem Pérez Martín1,‡, Wilke van der Schee1,5,6,§, and Javier G. Subils1,∥

  • *Contact author: m.aragonesfontbote@students.uu.nl
  • †Contact author: dmateos@fqa.ub.edu
  • ‡Contact author: g.perezmartin@students.uu.nl
  • §Contact author: w.vanderschee@uu.nl
  • ∥Contact author: j.gomezsubils@uu.nl

Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 031501 – Published 15 July, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/dsrc-4yp2

Abstract

We investigate cosmic censorship in anti–de Sitter space in holographic models in which the ground state is described by a good singularity. These include supersymmetric truncations of string/M theory, for which a positive-energy theorem holds. At the boundary, our solutions describe a boost-invariant fluid in which the temperature decreases monotonically with time. On the gravity side, they correspond to black-brane spacetimes with a receding horizon. In classical gravity, curvature invariants at the horizon grow without bound. In the full theory this regime may or may not be reached. In some cases it is avoided by a phase transition to a regular geometry. In others it is reached but the boundary hydrodynamic evolution can be continued, provided the equation of state at parametrically small energies is known. Both cases require the inclusion of finite-N or finite-coupling effects.

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