A hairy box in three dimensions

Abstract

In this short note, we consider the phases of gravity coupled to a U(1) gauge field and charged scalar in 2+1 dimensions without a cosmological constant, but with box boundary conditions. This is an extension of the results in arXiv:1609.01208, but unlike in higher dimensions, here the physics has sharp differences from the corresponding AdS problem. This is because Einstein-Maxwell black holes cease to exist when the cosmological constant goes to zero. We show that hairy black holes also do not exist in the flat 2+1 dimensional box under some assumptions, but hairy boson stars do. There is a second order phase transition from the empty box to the boson star phase at a charge density larger than some critical value. We find various new features in the phase diagram which were absent in 3+1 dimensions. Our explicit calculations assume radial symmetry, but we also note that the absence of black holes is more general. It is a trivial consequence of a 2+1 dimensional version of Hawking's horizon topology argument from 3+1 dimensions, and relies on the Dominant Energy Condition, which is violated when (e.g.) there is a negative cosmological constant.