490 research outputs found
Holographic (De)confinement Transitions in Cosmological Backgrounds
For type IIB supergravity with a running axio-dilaton, we construct bulk
solutions which admit a cosmological background metric of
Friedmann-Robertson-Walker type. These solutions include both a dark radiation
term in the bulk as well as a four-dimensional (boundary) cosmological
constant, while gravity at the boundary remains non-dynamical. We
holographically calculate the stress-energy tensor, showing that it consists of
two contributions: The first one, generated by the dark radiation term, leads
to the thermal fluid of N = 4 SYM theory, while the second, the conformal
anomaly, originates from the boundary cosmological constant. Conservation of
the boundary stress tensor implies that the boundary cosmological constant is
time-independent, such that there is no exchange between the two stress-tensor
contributions. We then study (de)confinement by evaluating the Wilson loop in
these backgrounds. While the dark radiation term favours deconfinement, a
negative cosmological constant drives the system into a confined phase. When
both contributions are present, we find an oscillating universe with negative
cosmological constant which undergoes periodic (de)confinement transitions as
the scale of three space expands and re-contracts.Comment: 31 pages, 5 figures, v2: Reference adde
Strongly bound mesons at finite temperature and in magnetic fields from AdS/CFT
We study mesons in N=4 super Yang-Mills theory with fundamental flavors added
at large 't Hooft coupling using the gauge/gravity correspondence. High-spin
mesons are well described by using semiclassical string configurations. We
determine the meson spectrum at finite temperature and in a background magnetic
field.Comment: 15 pages, 11 figures; v2: references adde
Massive Quantum Liquids from Holographic Angel's Trumpets
We explore the small-temperature regime in the deconfined phase of massive
fundamental matter at finite baryon number density coupled to the 3+1
dimensional N=4 SYM theory. In this setting, we can demonstrate a new type of
non-trivial temperature-independent scaling solutions for the probe brane
embeddings. Focusing mostly on matter supported in 2+1 dimensions, the
thermodynamics indicate that there is a quantum liquid with interesting
density-dependent low-temperature physics. We also comment about 3+1 and 1+1
dimensional systems, where we further find for example a new thermodynamic
instability.Comment: 18+1 pages, 6 figures; replaced fig. 6 and comments in sec. 5.2;
minor explanations added and typos fixed, final version published in JHEP
(modulo fig. 3); factor of \sqrt{\lambda} and corresponding comments fixe
Four-Dimensional Superconformal Theories with Interacting Boundaries or Defects
We study four-dimensional superconformal field theories coupled to
three-dimensional superconformal boundary or defect degrees of freedom.
Starting with bulk N=2, d=4 theories, we construct abelian models preserving
N=2, d=3 supersymmetry and the conformal symmetries under which the
boundary/defect is invariant. We write the action, including the bulk terms, in
N=2, d=3 superspace. Moreover we derive Callan-Symanzik equations for these
models using their superconformal transformation properties and show that the
beta functions vanish to all orders in perturbation theory, such that the
models remain superconformal upon quantization. Furthermore we study a model
with N=4 SU(N) Yang-Mills theory in the bulk coupled to a N=4, d=3
hypermultiplet on a defect. This model was constructed by DeWolfe, Freedman and
Ooguri, and conjectured to be conformal based on its relation to an AdS
configuration studied by Karch and Randall. We write this model in N=2, d=3
superspace, which has the distinct advantage that non-renormalization theorems
become transparent. Using N=4, d=3 supersymmetry, we argue that the model is
conformal.Comment: 30 pages, 4 figures, AMSLaTeX, revised comments on Chern-Simons term,
references adde
Mesons from global Anti-de Sitter space
In the context of gauge/gravity duality, we study both probe D7-- and probe
D5--branes in global Anti-de Sitter space. The dual field theory is N=4 theory
on R x S^3 with added flavour. The branes undergo a geometrical phase
transition in this geometry as function of the bare quark mass m_q in units of
1/R with R the S^3 radius. The meson spectra are obtained from fluctuations of
the brane probes. First, we study them numerically for finite quark mass
through the phase transition. Moreover, at zero quark mass we calculate the
meson spectra analytically both in supergravity and in free field theory on R x
S^3 and find that the results match: For the chiral primaries, the lowest level
is given by the zero point energy or by the scaling dimension of the operator
corresponding to the fluctuations, respectively. The higher levels are
equidistant. Similar results apply to the descendents. Our results confirm the
physical interpretation that the mesons cannot pair-produce any further when
their zero-point energy exceeds their binding energy.Comment: 43 pages, 8 figures, references edited, few typos corrected, updated
to match the published versio
Relativistic Hydrodynamics with General Anomalous Charges
We consider the hydrodynamic regime of gauge theories with general triangle
anomalies, where the participating currents may be global or gauged, abelian or
non-abelian. We generalize the argument of arXiv:0906.5044, and construct at
the viscous order the stress-energy tensor, the charge currents and the entropy
current.Comment: 13 pages, Revte
Criticality, Scaling and Chiral Symmetry Breaking in External Magnetic Field
We consider a D7-brane probe of in the presence of pure
gauge -field. The dual gauge theory is flavored Yang-Mills theory in
external magnetic field. We explore the dependence of the fermionic condensate
on the bare quark mass and study the discrete self-similar behavior of
the theory near the origin of the parametric space. We calculate the critical
exponents of the bare quark mass and the fermionic condensate. A study of the
meson spectrum supports the expectation based on thermodynamic considerations
that at zero bare quark mass the stable phase of the theory is a chiral
symmetry breaking one. Our study reveals the self-similar structure of the
spectrum near the critical phase of the theory, characterized by zero fermionic
condensate and we calculate the corresponding critical exponent of the meson
spectrum.Comment: 29 pages, 9 figures. Accepted in JHEP. Updated to mach the published
version. One figure added, some definitions improve
Conformal Field Theory Correlators from Classical Field Theory on Anti-de Sitter Space II. Vector and Spinor Fields
We use the AdS/CFT correspondence to calculate CFT correlation functions of
vector and spinor fields. The connection between the AdS and boundary fields is
properly treated via a Dirichlet boundary value problem.Comment: 14 pages, LaTeX2e with amsmath,amsfonts packages; v2:interactions
section corrected, reference adde
Spectral Flow on the Higgs Branch and AdS/CFT Duality
We use AdS/CFT duality to study the large N_c limit of the meson spectrum on
the Higgs branch of a strongly coupled, N=2 supersymmetric SU(N_c) gauge theory
with N_f =2 fundamental hypermultiplets. In the dual supergravity description,
the Higgs branch is described by SU(2) instanton configurations on D7-branes in
an AdS background. We compute the spectral flow parameterized by the size of a
single instanton. In the large N_c limit, there is a sense in which the flow
from zero to infinite instanton size, or Higgs VEV, can be viewed as a closed
loop. We show that this flow leads to a non-trivial rearrangement of the
spectrum.Comment: v2; 16 pages, 3 figures, LaTeX + JHEP class, 3 refs added, accepted
for publication by JHE
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