Universal behaviour, transients and attractors in supersymmetric Yang-Mills plasma

Numerical simulations of expanding plasma based on the AdS/CFT correspondence as well as kinetic theory and hydrodynamic models strongly suggest that some observables exhibit universal behaviour even when the system is not close to local equilibrium. This leading behaviour is expected to be corrected by transient, exponentially decaying contributions which carry information about the initial state. Focusing on late times, when the system is already in the hydrodynamic regime, we analyse numerical solutions describing expanding plasma of strongly coupled N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory and identify these transient effects, matching them in a quantitative way to leading trans-series corrections corresponding to least-damped quasinormal modes of AdS black branes. In the process we offer additional evidence supporting the recent identification of the Borel sum of the hydrodynamic gradient expansion with the far-from-equilibrium attractor in this system.Comment: Introduction improved, additional reference

On the hydrodynamic attractor of Yang-Mills plasma

There is mounting evidence suggesting that relativistic hydrodynamics becomes relevant for the physics of quark-gluon plasma as the result of nonhydrodynamic modes decaying to an attractor apparent even when the system is far from local equilibrium. Here we determine this attractor for Bjorken flow in N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory using Borel summation of the gradient expansion of the expectation value of the energy momentum tensor. By comparing the result to numerical simulations of the flow based on the AdS/CFT correspondence we show that it provides an accurate and unambiguous approximation of the hydrodynamic attractor in this system. This development has important implications for the formulation of effective theories of hydrodynamics.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures. v2: many small improvements. v3: introduction rephrased to emphasise key point

3d Modularity

We find and propose an explanation for a large variety of modularity-related symmetries in problems of 3-manifold topology and physics of 3d $\mathcal{N}=2$ theories where such structures a priori are not manifest. These modular structures include: mock modular forms, $SL(2,\mathbb{Z})$ Weil representations, quantum modular forms, non-semisimple modular tensor categories, and chiral algebras of logarithmic CFTs.Comment: 119 pages, 10 figures and 20 table

The Asymptotic Couple of the Field of Logarithmic Transseries

The derivation on the differential-valued field $\mathbb{T}_{\log}$ of logarithmic transseries induces on its value group $\Gamma_{\log}$ a certain map $\psi$. The structure $(\Gamma_{\log},\psi)$ is a divisible asymptotic couple. We prove that the theory $T_{\log} = {\rm Th}(\Gamma_{\log},\psi)$ admits elimination of quantifiers in a natural first-order language. All models $(\Gamma,\psi)$ of $T_{\log}$ have an important discrete subset $\Psi:=\psi(\Gamma\setminus\{0\})$. We give explicit descriptions of all definable functions on $\Psi$ and prove that $\Psi$ is stably embedded in $\Gamma$.Comment: 24 page

Integration on the Surreals

Conway's real closed field No of surreal numbers is a sweeping generalization of the real numbers and the ordinals to which a number of elementary functions such as log and exponentiation have been shown to extend. The problems of identifying significant classes of functions that can be so extended and of defining integration for them have proven to be formidable. In this paper, we address this and related unresolved issues by showing that extensions to No, and thereby integrals, exist for most functions arising in practical applications. In particular, we show they exist for a large subclass of the resurgent functions, a subclass that contains the functions that at infinity are semi-algebraic, semi-analytic, analytic, meromorphic, and Borel summable as well as generic solutions to linear and nonlinear systems of ODEs possibly having irregular singularities. We further establish a sufficient condition for the theory to carry over to ordered exponential subfields of No more generally and illustrate the result with structures familiar from the surreal literature. We work in NBG less the Axiom of Choice (for both sets and proper classes), with the result that the extensions of functions and integrals that concern us here have a "constructive" nature in this sense. In the Appendix it is shown that the existence of such constructive extensions and integrals of substantially more general types of functions (e.g. smooth functions) is obstructed by considerations from the foundations of mathematics.Comment: This paper supersedes the positive portion of O. Costin, P. Ehrlich and H. Friedman, "Integration on the surreals: a conjecture of Conway, Kruskal and Norton", arXiv:1505.02478v3, 24 Aug 2015. A separate paper superseding the negative portion of the earlier arXiv preprint is in preparation by H. Friedman and O. Costi