{
  "abstract": "We show that gravity can remove the linear magnetic instability of a holographic plasma with an $SU(2)$ global symmetry. In the probe limit, charged vector bosons become tachyonic in their lowest Landau level above a critical field and condense into a vortex lattice. In Einstein-$SU(2)$ Yang-Mills theory in AdS$_5$ we include the backreaction of the field exactly, expanding only in the condensate around the D'Hoker-Kraus magnetic brane. The critical field diverges as the coupling $α= κ^2/\\hat g^2$ approaches $α_\\star = 2/3$, above which the normal phase has no linear charged instability at any field or temperature: we show this at zero temperature and establish it numerically at finite temperature. At zero temperature the field cancels from the mass of the lowest Landau level in the brane's AdS$_3 \\times \\mathbb{R}^2$ throat, and the instability is a violation of the throat's Breitenlohner-Freedman bound. The onset temperature vanishes at $α_\\star$ with an essential singularity of Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless type. For two-derivative Einstein-Yang-Mills duals in $d = 4$, 5 and 6 dimensions the normal phase has a charged instability if and only if $C_J/C_T < 8/(d^2(d+1))$, one tenth in $d = 4$. Above $α_L = 0.372$ the gravitational attraction between vortices makes the uniform lattice unstable and the transition first order, so $B_c$ is only a spinodal; whether a condensed phase survives above $α_\\star$ is left open.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": "2610.14675",
  "author_total": 1,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Migael Strydom"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/4jybcs9gkx4tf.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.48550/arxiv.2610.14675",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "4jybcs9gkx4tf",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.14675",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": "CC0-1.0",
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "arxiv",
      "hep-th"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "3106|Black Holes and Theoretical Physics"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7221753342",
  "pdf_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2610.14675",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-10-10",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/4jybcs9gkx4tf.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:29:06Z",
      "native_id": "2610.14675",
      "source": "arxiv",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.14675"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "physics",
      "origin": "arxiv:hep-th",
      "subfield": "high-energy"
    }
  ],
  "title": "A critical coupling for the magnetic instability of holographic SU(2) plasmas",
  "title_text": "A critical coupling for the magnetic instability of holographic SU(2) plasmas",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:29:06Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/4jybcs9gkx4tf",
  "venue": "arXiv",
  "versions": []
}