Comments on the Thermodynamics of Little String Theory

Abstract

We study the high energy thermodynamics of Little String Theory, using its holographic description. This leads to the entropy-energy relation $S=\beta_H E+\alpha\log E+O(1/E)$. We compute $\alpha$ and show that it is negative; as a consequence, the high energy thermodynamics is unstable. We exhibit a mode localized near the horizon of the black brane, which has winding number one around Euclidean time and a mass that vanishes at large $E$ (or $\beta\to\beta_H$). We argue that the high temperature phase of the theory involves condensation of this mode.