Integrability and black-hole microstate geometries

Abstract

Abstract We examine some recently-constructed families of asymptotically-AdS3 × $$ {\mathbb{S}}^3 $$ S 3 supergravity solutions that have the same charges and mass as supersymmetric D1-D5- P black holes, but that cap off smoothly with no horizon. These solutions, known as superstrata, are quite complicated, however we show that, for an infinite family of solutions, the null geodesic problem is completely integrable, due to the existence of a non-trivial conformal Killing tensor that provides a quadratic conservation law for null geodesics. This implies that the massless scalar wave equation is separable. For another infinite family of solutions, we find that there is a non-trivial conformal Killing tensor only when the left-moving angular momentum of the massless scalar is zero. We also show that, for both these families, the metric degrees of freedom have the form they would take if they arose from a consistent truncation on $$ {\mathbb{S}}^3 $$ S 3 down to a (2 + 1)-dimensional space-time. We discuss some of the broader consequences of these special properties for the physics of these black-hole microstate geometries.