Chiral 2D "Strange Metals" from N = 4 SYM

Familiar field theories may contain closed subsectors made out of only fermions, which can be used to explore new and unusual phases of matter in lower dimensions. We focus on the fermionic su(1,1) sector in N=4 SYM and on its ground states, which are Fermi surface states/operators. By computing their spectrum to order $(g_{YM}^2 N)^2$, we argue that fluctuations around this fermi surface, within the sector and in the limit $k_F\rightarrow\infty$, are governed by a chiral 1+1 dimensional sector of the "strange metal" coset $SU(N)_N \otimes SU(N)_N/SU(N)_{2N}$. On the gravity side, the conjectured dual configuration is an $S=0$ degeneration of a rotating black hole. On general grounds we expect that the near horizon excitations of $(S=0,\Omega=1,J\rightarrow\infty)$ degenerations of black holes will be governed by a chiral sector of a 1+1 CFT.Comment: 44 page

Bounds on N=1\mathcal{N}=1 Superconformal Theories with Global Symmetries

Recently, the conformal-bootstrap has been successfully used to obtain generic bounds on the spectrum and OPE coefficients of unitary conformal field theories. In practice, these bounds are obtained by assuming the existence of a scalar operator in the theory and analyzing the crossing-symmetry constraints of its 4-point function. In $\mathcal{N}=1$ superconformal theories with a global symmetry there is always a scalar primary operator, which is the top of the current-multiplet. In this paper we analyze the crossing-symmetry constraints of the 4-point function of this operator for $\mathcal{N}=1$ theories with $SU(N)$ global symmetry. We analyze the current-current OPE, and derive the superconformal blocks, generalizing the work of Fortin, Intrilligator and Stergiou to the non-Abelian case and finding new superconformal blocks which appear in the Abelian case. We then use these results to obtain bounds on the coefficient of the current 2-point function.Comment: Corrected error in analysis for U(1) symmetr

Degenerate Rotating Black Holes, Chiral CFTs and Fermi Surfaces I - Analytic Results for Quasinormal Modes

In this work we discuss charged rotating black holes in $AdS_5 \times S^5$ that degenerate to extremal black holes with zero entropy. These black holes have scaling properties between charge and angular momentum similar to those of Fermi surface operators in a subsector of $\mathcal{N}=4$ SYM. We add a massless uncharged scalar to the five dimensional supergravity theory, such that it still forms a consistent truncation of the type IIB ten dimensional supergravity and analyze its quasinormal modes. Separating the equation of motion to a radial and angular part, we proceed to solve the radial equation using the asymptotic matching expansion method applied to a Heun equation with two nearby singularities. We use the continued fraction method for the angular Heun equation and obtain numerical results for the quasinormal modes. In the case of the supersymmetric black hole we present some analytic results for the decay rates of the scalar perturbations. The spectrum of quasinormal modes obtained is similar to that of a chiral 1+1 CFT, which is consistent with the conjectured field-theoretic dual. In addition, some of the modes can be found analytically.Comment: 41 pages, 1 figure, LaTeX; v2: typos corrected, references adde