A new dynamical instability in Anti-de-Sitter spacetime

Understand

We present fully dynamical solutions to Einstein-scalar theory in asymptotically Anti-de-Sitter spacetime with a scalar potential containing particularly rich physics.

• Depending on one parameter in the potential we find an especially interesting regime, which exhibits a thermodynamically stable, but dynamically unstable black brane, even at zero momentum.
• We show this using the non-linear dynamics, and give a clear interpretation in terms of the spectrum of linearized perturbations.
• Our results translate directly to their dual strongly coupled non-conformal field theories.