Emergent Horizons and Causal Structures in Holography

Abstract

The open string metric arises kinematically in studying fluctuations of open string degrees of freedom on a D-brane. An observer, living on a probe D-brane, can send signals through the spacetime by using such fluctuations on the probe, that propagate in accordance with a metric which is conformal to the open string metric. Event horizons can emerge in the open string metric when one considers a D-brane with an electric field on its worldvolume. Here, we emphasize the role of and investigate, in details, the causal structure of the resulting open string event horizon and demonstrate, among other things, its close similarities to an usual black hole event horizon in asymptotically AdS-spaces. To that end, we analyze relevant geodesics, Penrose diagrams and various causal holographic observables for a given open string metric. For analytical control, most of our calculations are performed in an asymptotically AdS$_3$-background, however, we argue that the physics is qualitatively the same in higher dimensions. We also discuss how this open string metric arises from an underlying D-brane configuration in string theory.