Gravity and on-shell probe actions

Ferrari, Frank und Rovai, Antonin (2016): Gravity and on-shell probe actions. In: Journal of High Energy Physics, No. 8, 047

Abstract

In any gravitational theory and in a wide class of background space-times, we argue that there exists a simple, yet profound, relation between the on-shell Euclidean gravitational action and the on-shell Euclidean action of probes. The probes can be, for instance, charged particles or branes. The relation is tightly related to the thermodynamic nature of gravity. We provide precise checks of the relation in several examples, which include both asymptotically flat and asymptotically AdS space-times, with particle, D-brane and M-brane probes. Perfect consistency is found in all cases, including in a highly non-trivial example including alpha'-corrections.

• Item Type: Journal article
• Faculties: Physics
• Subjects: 500 Science > 530 Physics
• ISSN: 1029-8479
• Language: English