Physical Constraints on Black Hole Chaos

This paper addresses inconsistencies in the study of chaotic motion near black holes, specifically concerning violations of the Maldacena-Shenker-Stanford (MSS) chaos-bound. It highlights the importance of correctly accounting for the angular momentum of test particles, which is often treated incorrectly. The authors develop a constrained framework to address this, finding that previously reported violations disappear under a consistent treatment. They then identify genuine violations in geometries with higher-order curvature terms, providing a method to distinguish between apparent and physical chaos-bound violations.