Bubbling AdS and droplet descriptions of BPS geometries in IIB supergravity

Abstract

This paper focuses on supergravity duals of BPS states in N = 4 super Yang-Mills. In order to describe these duals, we begin with a sequence of breathing mode reductions of IIB supergravity: first on S3, then S3 × S1, and finally on S3 × S1 × CP1. We then follow with a complete supersymmetry analysis, yielding 1/8, 1/4 and 1/2 BPS configurations, respectively (where in the last step we take the Hopf fibration of S3). The 1/8 BPS geometries, which have an S3 isometry and are time-fibered over a six-dimensional base, are determined by solving a non-linear equation for the Kähler metric on the base. Similarly, the 1/4 BPS configurations have an S3 × S1 isometry and a four-dimensional base, whose Kähler metric obeys another non-linear, Monge-Ampère type equation. Despite the non-linearity of the problem, we develop a universal bubbling AdS description of these geometries by focusing on the boundary conditions which ensure their regularity. In the 1/8 BPS case, we find that the S3 cycle shrinks to zero size on a five-dimensional locus inside the six-dimensional base. Enforcing regularity of the full solution requires that the interior of a smooth, generally disconnected five-dimensional surface be removed from the base. The AdS 5 × S5 ground state corresponds to excising the interior of an S5, while the 1/8 BPS excitations correspond to deformations (including topology change) of the S5 and/or the excision of additional droplets from the base. In the case of 1/4 BPS configurations, by enforcing regularity conditions, we identify three-dimensional surfaces inside the four-dimensional base which separate the regions where the S3 shrinks to zero size from those where the S1 shrinks. We discuss a large class of examples to show the emergence of a universal bubbling AdS picture for all 1/2, 1/4 and 1/8 BPS geometries.