Spatially modulated instabilities of magnetic black branes

Understand

We investigate spatially modulated instabilities of magnetically charged $AdS_{2}\times\mathbb{R}^2$, $AdS_{3}\times\mathbb{R}^2$ and $AdS_{2}\times\mathbb{R}^3$ backgrounds in a broad class of theories, including those arising from KK reductions of ten and eleven dimensional supergravity.

• We show that magnetically charged black brane solutions in D=4,5 spacetime dimensions, whose zero temperature near horizon limit approach these backgrounds, can have instabilities that are dual to phases with current density waves that spontaneously break translation symmetry.
• Our examples include spatially modulated instabilities for a new class of magnetic black brane solutions of D=5 SO(6) gauged supergravity, that we construct in closed form, which are dual to new phases of N=4 SYM theory.