Random wave chaos on momentum-fractionated microstate geometries

Abstract

We study the role of momentum fractionation in the development of chaos on smooth 3-charge supergravity solutions of D1-D5 theory, specifically momentum-fractionated superstrata. We probe the chaos through the dynamics of null geodesics and waves. On fractionated backgrounds, both geodesics and waves show uniformly strong chaos (large chaotic sea and near-perfect agreement with the Berry random wave hypothesis). In contrast, geodesics and waves on single-mode (non-fractionated) superstrata are closer to separability (although still chaotic). We discuss a possibility that such dichotomy can be related to the expectation that monotone BPS states are less chaotic than fortuitous ones. Finally, we explain why our chaos probes are meaningful for microstate geometries even though they become trivial in the black hole limit.