Spatially modulated instabilities of magnetic black branes

Abstract: We investigate spatially modulated instabilities of magnetically charged $AdS_{2}\times\mathbb{R}^2$, $AdS_{3}\times\mathbb{R}^2$ and $AdS_{2}\times\mathbb{R}^3$ backgrounds in a broad class of theories, including those arising from KK reductions of ten and eleven dimensional supergravity. We show that magnetically charged black brane solutions in D=4,5 spacetime dimensions, whose zero temperature near horizon limit approach these backgrounds, can have instabilities that are dual to phases with current density waves that spontaneously break translation symmetry. Our examples include spatially modulated instabilities for a new class of magnetic black brane solutions of D=5 SO(6) gauged supergravity, that we construct in closed form, which are dual to new phases of N=4 SYM theory.