345 research outputs found
Gravitational collapse and thermalization in the hard wall model
We study a simple example of holographic thermalization in a confining field
theory: the homogeneous injection of energy in the hard wall model. Working in
an amplitude expansion, we find black brane formation for sufficiently fast
energy injection and a scattering wave solution for sufficiently slow
injection. We comment on our expectations for more sophisticated holographic
QCD models.Comment: 33 pages, 5 figure
The holographic quantum effective potential at finite temperature and density
We develop a formalism that allows the computation of the quantum effective
potential of a scalar order parameter in a class of holographic theories at
finite temperature and charge density. The effective potential is a valuable
tool for studying the ground state of the theory, symmetry breaking patterns
and phase transitions. We derive general formulae for the effective potential
and apply them to determine the phase transition temperature and density in the
scaling region.Comment: 27 page
Deconfinement and Thermodynamics in 5D Holographic Models of QCD
We review 5D holographic approaches to finite temperature QCD. Thermodynamic
properties of the "hard-wall" and the "soft-wall" models are derived. Various
non-realistic features in these models are cured by the set-up of improved
holographic QCD, that we review here.Comment: Invited review paper for Mod. Phys. Let
On the Temperature Dependence of the Shear Viscosity and Holography
We examine the structure of the shear viscosity to entropy density ratio
eta/s in holographic theories of gravity coupled to a scalar field, in the
presence of higher derivative corrections. Thanks to a non-trivial scalar field
profile, eta/s in this setup generically runs as a function of temperature. In
particular, its temperature behavior is dictated by the shape of the scalar
potential and of the scalar couplings to the higher derivative terms. We
consider a number of dilatonic setups, but focus mostly on phenomenological
models that are QCD-like. We determine the geometric conditions needed to
identify local and global minima for eta/s as a function of temperature, which
translate to restrictions on the signs and ranges of the higher derivative
couplings. Finally, such restrictions lead to an holographic argument for the
existence of a global minimum for eta/s in these models, at or above the
deconfinement transition.Comment: references adde
Thermodynamics of SU(N) Yang-Mills theories in 2+1 dimensions II - The deconfined phase
We present a non-perturbative study of the equation of state in the
deconfined phase of Yang-Mills theories in D=2+1 dimensions. We introduce a
holographic model, based on the improved holographic QCD model, from which we
derive a non-trivial relation between the order of the deconfinement phase
transition and the behavior of the trace of the energy-momentum tensor as a
function of the temperature T. We compare the theoretical predictions of this
holographic model with a new set of high-precision numerical results from
lattice simulations of SU(N) theories with N=2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 colors. The
latter reveal that, similarly to the D=3+1 case, the bulk equilibrium
thermodynamic quantities (pressure, trace of the energy-momentum tensor, energy
density and entropy density) exhibit nearly perfect proportionality to the
number of gluons, and can be successfully compared with the holographic
predictions in a broad range of temperatures. Finally, we also show that, again
similarly to the D=3+1 case, the trace of the energy-momentum tensor appears to
be proportional to T^2 in a wide temperature range, starting from approximately
1.2 T_c, where T_c denotes the critical deconfinement temperature.Comment: 2+36 pages, 10 figures; v2: comments added, curves showing the
holographic predictions included in the plots of the pressure and energy and
entropy densities, typos corrected: version published in JHE
Holographic Conformal Window - A Bottom Up Approach
We propose a five-dimensional framework for modeling the background geometry
associated to ordinary Yang-Mills (YM) as well as to nonsupersymmetric gauge
theories possessing an infrared fixed point with fermions in various
representations of the underlying gauge group. The model is based on the
improved holographic approach, on the string theory side, and on the
conjectured all-orders beta function for the gauge theory one. We first analyze
the YM gauge theory. We then investigate the effects of adding flavors and show
that, in the holographic description of the conformal window, the geometry
becomes AdS when approaching the ultraviolet and the infrared regimes. As the
number of flavors increases within the conformal window we observe that the
geometry becomes more and more of AdS type over the entire energy range.Comment: 20 Pages, 3 Figures. v2: references adde
Holography and Thermodynamics of 5D Dilaton-gravity
The asymptotically-logarithmically-AdS black-hole solutions of 5D dilaton
gravity with a monotonic dilaton potential are analyzed in detail. Such
theories are holographically very close to pure Yang-Mills theory in four
dimensions. The existence and uniqueness of black-hole solutions is shown. It
is also shown that a Hawking-Page transition exists at finite temperature if
and only if the potential corresponds to a confining theory. The physics of the
transition matches in detail with that of deconfinement of the Yang-Mills
theory. The high-temperature phase asymptotes to a free gluon gas at high
temperature matching the expected behavior from asymptotic freedom. The thermal
gluon condensate is calculated and shown to be crucial for the existence of a
non-trivial deconfining transition. The condensate of the topological charge is
shown to vanish in the deconfined phase.Comment: LaTeX, 61 pages (main body) + 58 pages (appendix), 25 eps figures.
Revised version, published in JHEP. Two equations added in Section 7.4; typos
corrected; references adde
Zero Sound in Effective Holographic Theories
We investigate zero sound in -dimensional effective holographic theories,
whose action is given by Einstein-Maxwell-Dilaton terms. The bulk spacetimes
include both zero temperature backgrounds with anisotropic scaling symmetry and
their near-extremal counterparts obtained in 1006.2124 [hep-th], while the
massless charge carriers are described by probe D-branes. We discuss
thermodynamics of the probe D-branes analytically. In particular, we clarify
the conditions under which the specific heat is linear in the temperature,
which is a characteristic feature of Fermi liquids. We also compute the
retarded Green's functions in the limit of low frequency and low momentum and
find quasi-particle excitations in certain regime of the parameters. The
retarded Green's functions are plotted at specific values of parameters in
, where the specific heat is linear in the temperature and the
quasi-particle excitation exists. We also calculate the AC conductivity in
-dimensions as a by-product.Comment: 29 pages, 1 figur
Quantum critical lines in holographic phases with (un)broken symmetry
All possible scaling IR asymptotics in homogeneous, translation invariant
holographic phases preserving or breaking a U(1) symmetry in the IR are
classified. Scale invariant geometries where the scalar extremizes its
effective potential are distinguished from hyperscaling violating geometries
where the scalar runs logarithmically. It is shown that the general critical
saddle-point solutions are characterized by three critical exponents (). Both exact solutions as well as leading behaviors are exhibited.
Using them, neutral or charged geometries realizing both fractionalized or
cohesive phases are found. The generic global IR picture emerging is that of
quantum critical lines, separated by quantum critical points which correspond
to the scale invariant solutions with a constant scalar.Comment: v3: 32+29 pages, 2 figures. Matches version published in JHEP.
Important addition of an exponent characterizing the IR scaling of the
electric potentia
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