Transport properties of N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory at finite coupling

Gauge theory-string theory duality describes strongly coupled N=4 supersymmetric SU(n) Yang-Mills theory at finite temperature in terms of near extremal black 3-brane geometry in type IIB string theory. We use this correspondence to compute the leading correction in inverse 't Hooft coupling to the shear diffusion constant, bulk viscosity and the speed of sound in the large-n N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory plasma. The transport coefficients are extracted from the dispersion relation for the shear and the sound wave lowest quasinormal modes in the leading order alpha'-corrected black D3 brane geometry. We find the shear viscosity extracted from the shear diffusion constant to agree with result of [hep-th/0406264]; also, the leading correction to bulk viscosity and the speed of sound vanishes. Our computation provides a highly nontrivial consistency check on the hydrodynamic description of the alpha'-corrected nonextremal black branes in string theory.Comment: 19 pages, LaTe

Heavy flavor diffusion in weakly coupled N=4 Super Yang-Mills theory

We use perturbation theory to compute the diffusion coefficient of a heavy quark or scalar moving in N=4 SU(N_c) Super Yang-Mills plasma to leading order in the coupling and the ratio T/M<<1. The result is compared both to recent strong coupling calculations in the same theory and to the corresponding weak coupling result in QCD. Finally, we present a compact and simple formulation of the Lagrangian of our theory, N=4 SYM coupled to a massive fundamental N=2 hypermultiplet, which is well-suited for weak coupling expansions.Comment: 22 pages, 4 figures; v3: error corrected in calculations, figures and discussion modified accordingl

Schwinger-Keldysh Propagators from AdS/CFT Correspondence

We demonstrate how to compute real-time Green's functions for a class of finite temperature field theories from their AdS gravity duals. In particular, we reproduce the two-by-two Schwinger-Keldysh matrix propagator from a gravity calculation. Our methods should work also for computing higher point Lorentzian signature correlators. We elucidate the boundary condition subtleties which hampered previous efforts to build a Lorentzian-signature AdS/CFT correspondence. For two-point correlators, our construction is automatically equivalent to the previously formulated prescription for the retarded propagator.Comment: 16 pages, 1 figure, references added; to appear in JHE

The Second Sound of SU(2)

Using the AdS/CFT correspondence, we calculate the transport coefficients of a strongly interacting system with a non-abelian SU(2) global symmetry near a second order phase transition. From the behavior of the poles in the Green's functions near the phase transition, we determine analytically the speed of second sound, the conductivity, and diffusion constants. We discuss similarities and differences between this and other systems with vector order parameters such as p-wave superconductors and liquid helium-3.Comment: 31 pages, 2 figures; v2 ref added, typo fixe

The Hydrodynamics of M-Theory

We consider the low energy limit of a stack of N M-branes at finite temperature. In this limit, the M-branes are well described, via the AdS/CFT correspondence, in terms of classical solutions to the eleven dimensional supergravity equations of motion. We calculate Minkowski space two-point functions on these M-branes in the long-distance, low-frequency limit, i.e. the hydrodynamic limit, using the prescription of Son and Starinets [hep-th/0205051]. From these Green's functions for the R-currents and for components of the stress-energy tensor, we extract two kinds of diffusion constant and a viscosity. The N dependence of these physical quantities may help lead to a better understanding of M-branes.Comment: 1+19 pages, references added, section 5 clarified, eq. (72) correcte

Diffusion in an Expanding Plasma using AdS/CFT

We consider the diffusion of a non-relativistic heavy quark of fixed mass M, in a one-dimensionally expanding and strongly coupled plasma using the AdS/CFT duality. The Green's function constructed around a static string embedded in a background with a moving horizon, is identified with the noise correlation function in a Langevin approach. The (electric) noise decorrelation is of order 1/T(\tau) while the velocity de-correlation is of order MD(\tau)/T(\tau). For MD>1, the diffusion regime is segregated and the energy loss is Langevin-like. The time dependent diffusion constant D(\tau) asymptotes its adiabatic limit 2/\pi\sqrt{\lambda} T(\tau) when \tau/\tau_0=(1/3\eta_0\tau_0)^3 where \eta_0 is the drag coefficient at the initial proper time \tau_0.Comment: 19 pages, 2 figures, minor corrections, version to appear in JHE

New results on superconformal quivers

All superconformal quivers are shown to satisfy the relation c = a and are thus good candidates for being the field theory living on D3 branes probing CY singularities. We systematically study 3 block and 4 block chiral quivers which admit a superconformal fixed point of the RG equation. Most of these theories are known to arise as living on D3 branes at a singular CY manifold, namely complex cones over del Pezzo surfaces. In the process we find a procedure of getting a new superconformal quiver from a known one. This procedure is termed "shrinking" and, in the 3 block case, leads to the discovery of two new models. Thus, the number of superconformal 3 block quivers is 16 rather than the previously known 14. We prove that this list exausts all the possibilities. We suggest that all rank 2 chiral quivers are either del Pezzo quivers or can be obtained by shrinking a del Pezzo quiver and verify this statement for all 4 block quivers, where a lot of "shrunk'' del Pezzo models exist.Comment: 51 pages, many figure

Thermodynamics of AdS/QCD

We study finite temperature properties of four dimensional QCD-like gauge theories in the gauge theory/gravity duality picture. The gravity dual contains two deformed 5d AdS metrics, with and without a black hole, and a dilaton. We study the thermodynamics of the 4d boundary theory and constrain the two metrics so that they correspond to a high and a low temperature phase separated by a first order phase transition. The equation of state has the standard form for the pressure of a strongly coupled fluid modified by a vacuum energy, a bag constant. We determine the parameters of the deformation by using QCD results for $T_c$ and the hadron spectrum. With these parameters, we show that the phase transition in the 4d boundary theory and the 5d bulk Hawking-Page transition agree. We probe the dynamics of the two phases by computing the quark-antiquark free energy in them and confirm that the transition corresponds to confinement-deconfinement transition.Comment: 1+19 pages, 6 figures, references added, section 3 improve

Sound Waves in (2+1) Dimensional Holographic Magnetic Fluids

We use the AdS/CFT correspondence to study propagation of sound waves in strongly coupled (2+1) dimensional conformal magnetic fluids. Our computation provides a nontrivial consistency check of the viscous magneto-hydrodynamics of Hartnoll-Kovtun-Muller-Sachdev to leading order in the external field. Depending on the behavior of the magnetic field in the hydrodynamic limit, we show that it can lead to further attenuation of sound waves in the (2+1) dimensional conformal plasma, or reduce the speed of sound. We present both field theory and dual supergravity descriptions of these phenomena. While to the leading order in momenta the dispersion of the sound waves obtained from the dual supergravity description agrees with the one predicted from field theory, we find a discrepancy at higher order. This suggests that further corrections to HKMS magneto-hydrodynamics are necessary.Comment: 32 pages, LaTeX; minor corrections, references added; an error in the boundary conditions fixed, a slight change in the result

Low-lying gravitational modes in the scalar sector of the global AdS_4 black hole

We compute the quasinormal frequencies corresponding to the scalar sector of gravitational perturbations in the four-dimensional AdS-Schwarzschild black hole by using the master field formalism of hep-th/0305147. We argue that the non-deformation of the boundary metric favors a Robin boundary condition on the master field over the usual Dirichlet boundary condition mostly used in the literature. Using this Robin boundary condition we find a family of low-lying modes, whose frequencies match closely with predictions from linearized hydrodynamics on the boundary. In addition to the low-lying modes, we also see the usual sequence of modes with frequencies almost following an arithmetic progression.Comment: 23 pages, 3 figures; v2: typos corrected; v3: algebraic derivation of hydrodynamic modes corrected, results unaltere