182 research outputs found
Exact results for five-dimensional superconformal field theories with gravity duals
We apply the technique of supersymmetric localization to exactly compute the
partition function of several large superconformal field theories in
five dimensions that have duals in massive type IIA supergravity. The
localization computations are performed in the non-renormalizable effective
field theories obtained through relevant deformations of the UV superconformal
field theories. We compare the free energy to a holographic computation
of entanglement entropy in the duals and find perfect agreement. In
particular, we reproduce the scaling of the free energy that
was expected from supergravity.Comment: 21 pages, 1 figure; v2 refs added, typos fixe
The Holography of F-maximization
We find new supersymmetric backgrounds of gauged supergravity
in four Euclidean dimensions that are dual to deformations of ABJM theory on
. The deformations encode the most general choice of symmetry
used to define the theory on . We work within an truncation
of the supergravity theory obtained via a group theory argument.
We find perfect agreement between the free energy computed from our
supergravity backgrounds and the previous field theory computations of the same
quantity based on supersymmetric localization and matrix model techniques.Comment: 48 pages; v2 minor improvement
Towards Bootstrapping QED
We initiate the conformal bootstrap study of Quantum Electrodynamics in
space-time dimensions (QED) with flavors of charged fermions by
focusing on the 4-point function of four monopole operators with the lowest
unit of topological charge. We obtain upper bounds on the scaling dimension of
the doubly-charged monopole operator, with and without assuming other gaps in
the operator spectrum. Intriguingly, we find a (gap-dependent) kink in these
bounds that comes reasonably close to the large extrapolation of the
scaling dimensions of the singly-charged and doubly-charged monopole operators
down to and .Comment: 29 pages plus an appendix, 5 figures, v2 minor improvements, refs
adde
A one-dimensional theory for Higgs branch operators
We use supersymmetric localization to calculate correlation functions of
half-BPS local operators in 3d superconformal field theories
whose Lagrangian descriptions consist of vectormultiplets coupled to
hypermultiplets. The operators we primarily study are certain twisted linear
combinations of Higgs branch operators that can be inserted anywhere along a
given line. These operators are constructed from the hypermultiplet scalars.
They form a one-dimensional non-commutative operator algebra with topological
correlation functions. The 2- and 3-point functions of Higgs branch operators
in the full 3d theory can be simply inferred from the 1d
topological algebra. After conformally mapping the 3d superconformal field
theory from flat space to a round three-sphere, we preform supersymmetric
localization using a supercharge that does not belong to any 3d
subalgebra of the algebra. The result is a simple model that can
be used to calculate correlation functions in the 1d topological algebra
mentioned above. This model is a 1d Gaussian theory coupled to a matrix model,
and it can be viewed as a gauge-fixed version of a topological gauged quantum
mechanics. Our results generalize to non-conformal theories on that
contain real mass and Fayet-Iliopolous parameters. We also provide partial
results in the 1d topological algebra associated with the Coulomb branch, where
we calculate correlation functions of local operators built from the
vectormultiplet scalars.Comment: 108 pages; v2: typos corrected, some statements clarifie
Quantum critical superconductors in string theory and M-theory
We construct zero-temperature solutions of supergravity theories in five and
four dimensions which interpolate between two copies of anti-de Sitter space,
one of which preserves an abelian gauge symmetry while the other breaks it.
These domain wall solutions can be lifted to solutions of type IIB string
theory and eleven-dimensional supergravity. They describe quantum critical
behavior and emergent relativistic conformal symmetry in a superfluid or
superconducting state of a strongly coupled dual gauge theory. We include
computations of frequency-dependent conductivities which exhibit power law
scaling in the infrared, with exponents determined by irrelevant perturbations
to the symmetry-breaking anti-de Sitter background.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures. v2: References slightly improved, mentioned F^F
constrain
Sonic booms and diffusion wakes generated by a heavy quark in thermal AdS/CFT
We evaluate the Poynting vector generated by a heavy quark moving through a
thermal state of N=4 gauge theory using AdS/CFT. A significant diffusion wake
is observed as well as a Mach cone. We discuss the ratio of the energy going
into sound modes to the energy coming in from the wake.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, revtex
Bulk viscosity of strongly coupled plasmas with holographic duals
We explain a method for computing the bulk viscosity of strongly coupled
thermal plasmas dual to supergravity backgrounds supported by one scalar field.
Whereas earlier investigations required the computation of the leading
dissipative term in the dispersion relation for sound waves, our method
requires only the leading frequency dependence of an appropriate Green's
function in the low-frequency limit. With a scalar potential chosen to mimic
the equation of state of QCD, we observe a slight violation of the lower bound
on the ratio of the bulk and shear viscosities conjectured in arXiv:0708.3459.Comment: 33 pages, 3 figure
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