abstract

We generate a class of string backgrounds by a sequence of TsT transformations of the NS1-NS5 system that we argue are holographically dual to states in a single-trace TT¯+JT¯+TJ¯-deformed CFT2. The new string backgrounds include general rotating black hole solutions with two U(1) charges as well as a smooth solution without a horizon that is interpreted as the ground state. As evidence for the correspondence we (i) derive the long string spectrum and relate it to the spectrum of the dual field theory; (ii) show that the black hole thermodynamics can be reproduced from single-trace TT¯+JT¯+TJ¯-deformed CFTs; and (iii) show that the energy of the ground state matches the energy of the vacuum in the dual theory. We also study geometric properties of these new spacetimes and find that for some choices of the parameters the three-dimensional Ricci scalar in the Einstein frame can become positive in a region outside the horizon before reaching closed timelike curves and singularities.

We study the relationship between TsT transformations, marginal deformations of string theory on AdS3 backgrounds, and irrelevant deformations of 2d CFTs. We show that TsT transformations of NS-NS backgrounds correspond to instantaneous deformations of the worldsheet action by the antisymmetric product of two Noether currents, holographically mirroring the definition of the TT¯, JT¯, TJ¯, and JJ¯ deformations of 2d CFTs. Applying a TsT transformation to string theory on BTZ ×S^3×M^4 we obtain a general class of rotating black string solutions, including the Horne-Horowitz and the Giveon-Itzhaki-Kutasov ones as special cases, which we show are holographically dual to thermal states in single-trace TT¯-deformed CFTs. We also find a smooth solution interpolating between global AdS3 in the IR and a linear dilaton background in the UV that is interpreted as the NS-NS ground state in the dual TT¯-deformed CFT. This background suggests the existence of an upper bound on the deformation parameter above which the solution becomes complex. We find that the worldsheet spectrum, the thermodynamics of the black strings (in particular their Bekenstein-Hawking entropy), and the critical value of the deformation parameter match the corresponding quantities obtained from single-trace TT¯ deformations.