Hydrodynamics of fundamental matter

First and second order transport coefficients are calculated for the strongly coupled N=4 SYM plasma coupled to massless fundamental matter in the Veneziano limit. The results, including among others the value of the bulk viscosity and some relaxation times, are presented at next-to-leading order in the flavor contribution. The bulk viscosity is found to saturate Buchel's bound. This result is also captured by an effective single-scalar five-dimensional holographic dual in the Chamblin-Reall class and it is suggested to hold, in the limit of small deformations, for generic plasmas with gravity duals, whenever the leading conformality breaking effects are driven by marginally (ir)relevant operators. This proposal is then extended to other relations for hydrodynamic coefficients, which are conjectured to be universal for every non-conformal plasma with a dual Chamblin-Reall-like description. Our analysis extends to any strongly coupled gauge theory describing the low energy dynamics of Nc>>1 D3-branes at the tip of a generic Calabi-Yau cone. The fundamental fields are added by means of 1<<Nf<<Nc homogeneously smeared D7-branes.Comment: 24 pages. V2: Important improvements in the discussion of the results in section 1. References adde

The fundamental non critical string

We obtain the (super) gravity solution in arbitrary space-time dimension less than ten, that gives a low energy description of a fundamental string embedded in a non critical vacuum, product of $d$-dimensional Minkowski space-time and a cigar-like geometry with scale $r_0$. This solution, one of the few known examples of objects doubly localized, both at the origin of the transverse space as well as at the tip of the cigar, is determined by its charge $Q$ under the Kalb-Ramond gauge field $B$, and presumably preserves, for even $d$, $2^\frac{d}{2}$ supercharges. Moreover, we show that the solution is reliable at least in a region far away from both origins, as it is the case with the well known branes of critical string theory.Comment: 10 pages, latex file, one figure, to be published in Physics Letters

Towards multi-scale dynamics on the baryonic branch of Klebanov-Strassler

We construct explicitly a new class of backgrounds in type-IIB supergravity which generalize the baryonic branch of Klebanov-Strassler. We apply a solution-generating technique that, starting from a large class of solutions of the wrapped-D5 system, yields the new solutions, and then proceed to study in detail their properties, both in the IR and in the UV. We propose a simple intuitive field theory interpretation of the rotation procedure and of the meaning of our new solutions within the Papadopoulos-Tseytlin ansatz, in particular in relation to the duality cascade in the Klebanov-Strassler solution. The presence in the field theory of different VEVs for operators of dimensions 2, 3 and 6 suggests that this is an important step towards the construction of the string dual of a genuinely multi-scale (strongly coupled) dynamical model.Comment: 37 pages, 7 figures. References added, version to appear in JHE

Heavy quark density in N=4 SYM: from hedgehog to Lifshitz spacetimes

We study the effect of an order N^2 density of heavy quarks in strongly coupled N=4 SUSY Yang-Mills theory in the large N limit. This is achieved in the type IIB supergravity dual by introducing a uniformly smeared density of macroscopic string sources stretching to the boundary of AdS_5 x S^5. The backreacted system exhibits a flow from an AdS_5 "hedgehog" geometry to a scaling Lifshitz-like solution Lif_5 x S^5 with dynamical critical exponent z=7, wherein the scaling symmetry is broken by a logarithmic running dilaton. We find an exact black brane solution within the scaling regime which describes the low temperature thermodynamics of the system.Comment: 20 pages, 2 figures, references adde

Exploring improved holographic theories for QCD: Part II

This paper is a continuation of ArXiv:0707.1324 where improved holographic theories for QCD were set up and explored. Here, the IR confining geometries are classified and analyzed. They all end in a "good" (repulsive) singularity in the IR. The glueball spectra are gaped and discrete, and they favorably compare to the lattice data. Quite generally, confinement and discrete spectra imply each other. Asymptotically linear glueball masses can also be achieved. Asymptotic mass ratios of various glueballs with different spin also turn out to be universal. Mesons dynamics is implemented via space filling D4-anti-D4 brane pairs. The associated tachyon dynamics is analyzed and chiral symmetry breaking is shown. The dynamics of the RR axion is analyzed, and the non-perturbative running of the QCD theta-angle is obtained. It is shown to always vanish in the IR.Comment: 65+18 pages, 20 figures (v3) Some modifications in Appendix E explaining in more detail the issue of initial conditions; typos corrected. Published versio

New checks and subtleties for AdS/CFT and a-maximization

We provide a cross-check of AdS/CFT and a-charge maximization for a four dimensional $N$=1 SCFT with irrational R-charges. The gauge theory is the low energy effective theory of N D3-branes at the tip of the complex cone over the first del Pezzo surface. By carefully taking into account the subtle issue of flavor symmetry breaking at the fixed point, we show, using a-maximization, that this theory has in fact irrational central charge and R-charges. Our results perfectly match with those inherited from the recently discovered supergravity dual background. Along analogous lines, we make novel predictions for the still unknown AdS dual of the quiver theory for the second del Pezzo surface. This should flow to a SCFT with irrational charges, too. All of our results differ from previous findings in the literature and outline interesting subtleties in a-maximization and AdS/CFT techniques overlooked in the past.Comment: Latex, 16 pagex, 2 figures; v2, comments and a reference added; v3, typos correcte

Space-time filling branes in non critical (super) string theories

We consider solutions of (super) gravities associated to non-critical (super) string theories in arbitrary space-time dimension D=p+3, that describe generically non extremal black p-branes charged under NSNS or RR gauge fields, embedded in some non critical vacuum. In the case of vacuum (uncharged) backgrounds, we solve completely the problem obtaining all the possible solutions, that consist of the (p+1)-dimensional Minkowski space times a linear dilaton times a S^1, and a three parameter family of solutions that include (p+1)-dimensional Minkowski space times the cigar, and its T-dual (p+1)-dimensional Minkowski space times the trumpet. For NSNS charged solutions, we also solve in closed form the problem, obtaining several families of solutions, that include in particular the fundamental non-critical string solution embedded in the cigar vacuum, recently found in hep-th/0604202, a solution that we interpret as a fundamental non-critical string embedded in the linear dilaton vacuum, and a two-parameter family of regular curvature solutions asymptotic to AdS_{1,2}\times S^1. In the case of RR charged Dp-branes solutions, an ansatz allows us to find a non conformal, constant curvature, asymptotically AdS_{1,p+1} space, T-dual to AdS_{1,p+2}, together with a two-parameter family of solutions that includes the non conformal, AdS black hole like solution associated with the earlier space. The solutions obtained by T-duality are Einstein spaces consisting of a two-parameter family of conformal, constant dilaton solutions, that include, in particular, the AdS black hole of hep-th/0403254. We speculate about the possible applications of some of them in the framework of the gauge-gravity correspondence.Comment: 34 pages, 10 figures, to be published by Nuclear Physics