RG Flows Towards IR Isolated Fixed Points: Some Type 0 Samples

We perform here a critical analysis of some non-supersymmetric gravity solutions in Type 0B string theory. We first consider the most general configuration of parallel N electric and M magnetic D3-branes. The field theory living on their worldvolume is non-supersymmetric and non-conformal (if N is different from M) and has gauge group SU(N)XSU(M). We study the IR regime of the conjectured dual gravity background. A fine tuned solution exists with an asymptotically vanishing tachyon and a running dilaton, which could correspond to a flow towards an IR isolated fixed point at strong coupling. This opens the question upon the possibility of extending AdS/CFT techniques to flows towards IR isolated fixed points. We then use D3-branes as probes of this and other Type 0 backgrounds available in literature which cover the M=0 (or N=0) case. We shaw that for the fine tuned IR conformal solutions the stacks of parallel branes are plagued by instabilities, due to the repulsive force between branes of the same type. Curiously, for a particular solution which could be dual to a confining gauge theory, the stack should instead be stable.Comment: 19 pages, LateX; version revised for publication in JHE

Holographic duals of SQCD models in low dimensions

We obtain gravity duals to supersymmetric gauge theories in two and three spacetime dimensions with unquenched flavor. The supergravity solutions are generated by a set of color branes wrapping a compact cycle in a Calabi-Yau threefold, together with another set of flavor branes extended along the directions orthogonal to the cycle wrapped by the color branes. We construct supergravity backgrounds which include the backreaction induced by a smeared set of flavor branes, which act as delocalized dynamical sources of the different supergravity fields.Comment: 42 pages, 5 figures;v2: typos correcte

D3-D7 Quark-Gluon Plasmas at Finite Baryon Density

We present the string dual to SU(Nc) N=4 SYM, coupled to Nf massless fundamental flavors, at finite temperature and baryon density. The solution is determined by two dimensionless parameters, both depending on the 't Hooft coupling $\lambda_h$ at the scale set by the temperature T: $\epsilon_h\sim\lambda_h Nf/Nc$, weighting the backreaction of the flavor fields and $\tilde\delta\sim\lambda_h^{-1/2}nb/(Nf T^3)$, where $nb$ is the baryon density. For small values of these two parameters the solution is given analytically up to second order. We study the thermodynamics of the system in the canonical and grand-canonical ensembles. We then analyze the energy loss of partons moving through the plasma, computing the jet quenching parameter and studying its dependence on the baryon density. Finally, we analyze certain "optical" properties of the plasma. The whole setup is generalized to non abelian strongly coupled plasmas engineered on D3-D7 systems with D3-branes placed at the tip of a generic singular Calabi-Yau cone. In all the cases, fundamental matter fields are introduced by means of homogeneously smeared D7-branes and the flavor symmetry group is thus a product of abelian factors.Comment: 27 pages; v2: 29 pages, 1 (new) figure, new section 4.4 on optical properties, references, comments added; v3: eq. (3.19), comments and a reference adde

N=2 Gauge Theories from Wrapped Five-branes

We present string duals of four dimensional N=2 pure SU(N) SYM theory. The theory is obtained as the low energy limit of D5-branes wrapped on non-trivial two-cycles. Using seven dimensional gauged supergravity and uplifting the result to ten dimensions, we obtain solutions corresponding to various points of the N=2 moduli space. The more symmetric solution may correspond to a point with rotationally invariant classical vevs. By turning on seven dimensional scalar fields, we find a solution corresponding to a linear distribution of vevs. Both solutions are conveniently studied with a D5-probe, which also confirms many of the standard expectations for N=2 solutions.Comment: 11 pages, LateX. Revised versio

Consistent reduction of charged D3-D7 systems

We provide a consistent reduction to five dimensions of the system of D3-branes at Calabi-Yau singularities coupled to D7-branes with world-volume gauge flux. The D3-branes source the dual to would-be conformal quiver theories. The D7-branes, which are homogeneously distributed in their transverse directions, are dual to massless matter in the fundamental representation at finite (baryon) density. We provide the five-dimensional action and equations of motion, and discuss a few sub-truncations. The reduction can be used in the study of transport properties and stability of D3-D7 charged systems.Comment: 23 pages. v2: references added and minor change

Gravity duals of 2d supersymmetric gauge theories

We find new supergravity solutions generated by D5-branes wrapping a four-cycle and preserving four and two supersymmetries. We first consider the configuration in which the fivebranes wrap a four-cycle in a Calabi-Yau threefold, which preserves four supersymmetries and is a gravity dual to the Coulomb branch of two-dimensional gauge theories with N=(2,2) supersymmetry. We also study the case of fivebranes wrapping a co-associative four-cycle in a manifold of G_2-holonomy, which provides a gravity dual of N=(1,1) supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory in two dimensions. We also discuss the addition of unquenched fundamental matter fields to these backgrounds and find the corresponding gravity solutions with flavor brane sources.Comment: 34 pages + appendices; v2: minor improvement

Splitting of macroscopic fundamental strings in flat space and holographic hadron decays

In this review article we present the calculation of the splitting rate in flat space of a macroscopic fundamental string either intersecting at a generic angle a Dp-brane or lying on it. The result is then applied, in the context of the string/gauge theory correspondence, to the study of exclusive decay rates of large spin mesons into mesons. As examples, we discuss the cases of N=4 SYM with a small number of flavors, and of QCD-like theories in the quenched approximation. In the latter context, explicit analytic formulas are given for decay rates of mesons formed either by heavy quarks or by massless quarks.Comment: 17 pages, 3 figures. Invited review for Modern Physics Letters

Supersymmetry breaking at the end of a cascade of Seiberg dualities

We study the IR dynamics of the cascading non-conformal quiver theory on N regular and M fractional D3 branes at the tip of the complex cone over the first del Pezzo surface. The horizon of this cone is the irregular Sasaki-Einstein manifold Y^{2,1}. Our analysis shows that at the end of the cascade supersymmetry is dynamically broken.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures, minor changes, typos correcte

Holographic Duals of Quark Gluon Plasmas with Unquenched Flavors

We review the construction of gravitational solutions holographically dual to N=1 quiver gauge theories with dynamical flavor multiplets. We focus on the D3-D7 construction and consider the finite temperature, finite quark chemical potential case where there is a charged black hole in the dual solution. Discussed physical outputs of the model include its thermodynamics (with susceptibilities) and general hydrodynamic properties.Comment: Lecture presented at the Workshop "AdS/CFT and Novel Approaches to Hadron and Heavy Ion Physics", Kavli Institute of Theoretical Physics (KITPC), Beijing, China, 13 October 2010. Review article to be published in Communications in Theoretical Physics. 27 pages, 2 figure

Strings on pp-waves and Hadrons in (softly broken) N=1 gauge theories

We study the Penrose limit of Type IIB duals of softly broken N=1 SU(N) gauge theories in four dimensions, obtained as deformations of the Maldacena-Nunez and Klebanov-Strassler backgrounds. We extract the string spectrum on the resulting pp-wave backgrounds and discuss some properties of the conjectured dual gauge theory hadrons, the so called "Annulons". The string zero-point energy on the light-cone is nontrivial, due to the loss of linearly realized worldsheet supersymmetry, and negative, even in the unbroken supersymmetric case. This causes the appearance of non-perturbative corrections to the hadronic mass spectrum. We briefly discuss the thermodynamic behavior of these string models, calculating the corresponding Hagedorn temperatures.Comment: 20 page