Evolution of anti-de Sitter black holes in Einstein-Maxwell-dilaton theory

We study the nonlinear evolution of the spherical symmetric charged black holes under a small neutral scalar field perturbation in Einstein-Maxwell-dilaton theory with coupling function f(phi) = e(-b phi) in asymptotic anti-de Sitter spacetime. The nonminimal coupling between scalar and Maxwell fields allows the transmission of the energy from the Maxwell field to the scalar field, but also behaves as a repulsive force for the scalar. The scalar field oscillates with damping amplitude and converges to a final value. The irreducible mass of the black hole increases abruptly at initial times and then saturates to the final value exponentially. The saturating rate is twice the decaying rate of the dominant mode of the scalar. The effects of the black hole charge, the cosmological constant, and the coupling parameter on the evolution are studied in detail. When the initial configuration is a naked singularity spacetime with a large charge to mass ratio, a horizon will form soon and hide the singularity.