A Novel Mechanism to Generate FFLO States in Holographic Superconductors

We discuss a novel mechanism to set up a gravity dual of FFLO states in strongly coupled superconductors. The gravitational theory utilizes two U(1) gauge fields and a scalar field coupled to a charged AdS black hole. The first gauge field couples with the scalar sourcing a charge condensate below a critical temperature, and the second gauge field provides a coupling to spin in the boundary theory. The scalar is neutral under the second gauge field. By turning on an interaction between the Einstein tensor and the scalar, it is shown that, in the low temperature limit, an inhomogeneous solution possesses a higher critical temperature than the homogeneous case, giving rise to FFLO states.Comment: v2: 7 pages, 5 figures, improved discussion on critical temperature, to appear in PLB. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1208.458

AdS/CFT Correspondence and Hydrodynamics of Relativistic Heavy Ion Collisions

The experiments performed at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Lab have discovered a state of matter called the strongly coupled quark-gluon plasma (sQGP). The strong coupling has limited the ability of the standard theory to describe such matter, namely Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD). However, string theory\u27s anti-de Sitter/conformal field theory (AdS/CFT) correspondence has provided a new way to study the situation and in an analytical manner. So far, hydrodynamic properties of RHIC\u27s plasma, such as elliptic flow and longitudinal expansion, have been seen to follow from classical supergravity calculations. In this dissertation I discuss some of the field\u27s development as well as the research done by the author and collaborators

Grateful Gifts: Toward an Ethic of Donativity

Much recent work on the philosophical import of gifts comes in the wake of Jacques Derrida’s work Given Time I: Counterfeit Money, in which he claims that the gift is aporetic. This essay is an attempt to work out whether the gift is genuinely aporetic and, if it is not, to explore what this means for the gift. In the first chapter I will give an account of Derrida’s aporia as he presents it in Given Time. This will carefully lay out his reasons for thinking that the gift is im-possible, introduce the models of desire and duty, and explain why the presence of the ego is what is most problematic for the gift in Derrida’s account. The second chapter will explore the moral philosophies of two thinkers, Immanuel Kant and Emmanuel Levinas, in order to better understand why the models of desire and duty are insufficient for thinking through the gift. In particular, I will give a criticism of Kant’s theory of moral emotions in order to demonstrate that, although he claims duty is the sole source of the good, he seems to recognize that such a philosophy ignores another source of the good that finds its origin in the other. Levinas has such a notion of the other, but my analysis will show that he is just as incapable of thinking through the gift as Kant, as his moral philosophy revolves around a kind of radical, particular duty. The third chapter will explore what the insights of the previous chapter reveal about the nature of the gift. By the end of this new account of the gift, Derrida’s aporia will be shown to have been correct but misguided, as the gift event works differently than he originally supposed. Finally, the fourth chapter will examine the ontological implications for the world if we are shot through with an otherness. This exploration will be done in conjunction with an account of Marion’s phenomenology and Heidegger’s essay On the Essence of Truth

Bjorken flow from an AdS Schwarzschild black hole

We consider a large black hole in asymptotically AdS spacetime of arbitrary dimension with a Minkowski boundary. By performing an appropriate slicing as we approach the boundary, we obtain via holographic renormalization a gauge theory fluid obeying Bjorken hydrodynamics in the limit of large longitudinal proper time. The metric we obtain reproduces to leading order the metric recently found as a direct solution of the Einstein equations in five dimensions. Our results are also in agreement with recent exact results in three dimensions.Comment: 5 pages in two-column RevTeX; sharpened discussion to appear in PR