Turbulent gravitational wakes

Abstract

We construct turbulent gravitational wakes in asymptotically AdS$_4$ spacetimes by solving the full non-linear Einstein equations in the characteristic formulation. Specifically, we show that a localized boundary deformation acting on a boosted black brane generates a wake whose boundary dynamics exhibit the formation of coherent vortical structures that are advected downstream by the background flow. Analysing a wake propagating along the x direction, we show that it displays the characteristic self-similar scaling of classical turbulent wakes. We then identify the geometric imprint of the wake on the horizon area density, the traceless horizon extrinsic curvature, and bulk metric perturbations, finding coherent structures that extend from the asymptotic boundary to the horizon. These results provide the first study of turbulent gravitational wakes in four-dimensional asymptotically AdS spacetimes.