PP-waves from rotating and continuously distributed D3-branes

We study families of PP-wave solutions of type-IIB supergravity that have (light-cone) time dependent metrics and RR five-form fluxes. They arise as Penrose limits of supergravity solutions that correspond to rotating or continuous distributions of D3-branes. In general, the solutions preserve sixteen supersymmetries. On the dual field theory side these backgrounds describe the BMN limit of N=4 SYM when some scalars in the field theory have non-vanishing expectation values. We study the perturbative string spectrum and in several cases we are able to determine it exactly for the bosons as well as for the fermions. We find that there are special states for particular values of the light-cone constant P_+.Comment: 23 pages, Latex. v2: a few extra remarks and aesthetic changes, version to appear in JHE

Wilson loops from multicentre and rotating branes, mass gaps and phase structure in gauge theories

Within the AdS/CFT correspondence we use multicentre D3-brane metrics to investigate Wilson loops and compute the associated heavy quark-antiquark potentials for the strongly coupled SU(N) super-Yang-Mills gauge theory, when the gauge symmetry is broken by the expectation values of the scalar fields. For the case of a uniform distribution of D3-branes over a disc, we find that there exists a maximum separation beyond which there is no force between the quark and the antiquark, i.e. the screening is complete. We associate this phenomenon with the possible existence of a mass gap in the strongly coupled gauge theory. In the finite-temperature case, when the corresponding supergravity solution is a rotating D3-brane solution, there is a class of potentials interpolating between a Coulombic and a confining behaviour. However, above a certain critical value of the mass parameter, the potentials exhibit a behaviour characteristic of statistical systems undergoing phase transitions. The physical path preserves the concavity property of the potential and minimizes the energy. Using the same rotating-brane solutions, we also compute spatial Wilson loops, associated with the quark-antiquark potential in models of three-dimensional gauge theories at zero temperature, with similar results.Comment: 27 pages, latex, 7 figures; v2: no substantial changes, version to appear in Adv. Theor. Math. Phy

Four Dimensional Plane Wave String Solutions with Coset CFT Description

We present a number of D=4 bosonic and heterotic string solutions with a covariantly constant null Killing vector which, like the solution of Nappi and Witten (NW), correspond to (gauged) WZW models and thus have a direct conformal field theory interpretation. A class of exact plane wave solutions (which includes the NW solution) is constructed by `boosting' the twisted products of two D=2 `cosmological' or `black-hole' cosets of SL(2,R) and SU(2). We describe a general limiting procedure by which one can construct new solutions with a covariantly constant null Killing vector starting with known string backgrounds. By applying a non-abelian duality transformation to the NW model we find a D=4 solution which has a covariantly constant null Killing vector but is not a plane wave. Higher dimensional bosonic backgrounds with isometries can be interpreted as lower dimensional backgrounds with extra gauge fields. Some of them are at the same time solutions of the heterotic string theory. In particular, the NW model represents also a D=3 `gravi-electromagnetic' heterotic string plane wave. In addition to the (1,1) supersymmetric embeddings of bosonic solutions we construct a number of non-trivial (1,0) supersymmetric exact D=4 heterotic string plane wave solutions some of which are related (by a boost and analytic continuation) to limiting cases of D=4 heterotic black hole solutions.Comment: 36 pages, harvmac, THU-94/08, Imperial/TP/93-94/2

Poisson-Lie T-Duality and Bianchi Type Algebras

All Bianchi bialgebras have been obtained. By introducing a non-degenerate adjoint invariant inner product over these bialgebras the associated Drinfeld doubles have been constructed, then by calculating the coupling matrices for these bialgebras several sigma-models with Poisson-Lie symmetry have been obtained. Two simple examples as prototypes of Poisson-Lie dual models have been given.Comment: 16 pages, Latex; Some comments to the concluding section added, references adde

Current correlators and AdS/CFT away from the conformal point

Using the AdS/CFT correspondence we study vacua of N=4 SYM for which part of the gauge symmetry is broken by expectation values of scalar fields. A specific subclass of such vacua can be analyzed with gauged supergravity and the corresponding domain wall solutions lift to continuous distributions of D3-branes in type IIB string theory. Due to the non-trivial expectation value of the scalars, the SO(6) R-symmetry is spontaneously broken and field theory predicts the existence of Goldstone bosons. We explicitly show that, in the dual supergravity description, these emerge as massless poles in the current two-point functions, while the bulk gauge fields which are dual to the broken currents become massive via the Higgs mechanism. We find agreement with field theory expectations and, hence, provide a non-trivial test of the AdS/CFT correspondence far away from the conformal point.Comment: 12 pages, Latex. Contribution to the proceedings of the 7th Hellenic summer school and Workshops on High Energy Physics, Corfu, Greece, 13 Aug.-13 Sept. 200

T-Duality for Coset Models

We construct dual Lagrangians for $G/H$ models in two space-time dimensions for arbitrary Lie groups $G$ and $H\subset G$. Our approach does not require choosing coordinates on $G/H$, and allows for a natural generalization to Lie-Poisson duality. For the case where the target metric on $G/H$ is induced from the invariant metric on $G$, the dual system is a gauged Higgs model, with a nonconstant metric and a coupling to an antisymmetric tensor. The dynamics for the gauge connection is governed by a $BF$-term. Lie-Poisson duality is relevant once we allow for a more general class of target metrics, as well as for couplings to an antisymmetric tensor, in the primary theory. Then the dual theory is written on a group $\tilde G$ dual to $G$, and the gauge group $H$ (which, in general, is not a subgroup of $\tilde G$) acts nonlinearly on $\tilde G$. The dual system therefore gives a nonlinear realization of a gauge theory. All dual descriptions are shown to be canonically equivalent to the corresponding primary descriptions, at least at the level of the current algebra.Comment: 21 p

On Asymptotic Freedom and Confinement from Type-IIB Supergravity

We present a new type-IIB supergravity vacuum that describes the strong coupling regime of a non-supersymmetric gauge theory. The latter has a running coupling such that the theory becomes asymptotically free in the ultraviolet. It also has a running theta angle due to a non-vanishing axion field in the supergravity solution. We also present a worm-hole solution, which has finite action per unit four-dimensional volume and two asymptotic regions, a flat space and an AdS^5\times S^5. The corresponding N=2 gauge theory, instead of being finite, has a running coupling. We compute the quark-antiquark potential in this case and find that it exhibits, under certain assumptions, an area-law behaviour for large separations.Comment: 9 pages, latex, 1 figure v2: minor aesthetic changes v3: some scale factors corrected, version to appear in PL

On running couplings in gauge theories from type-IIB supergravity

We construct an explicit solution of type-IIB supergravity describing the strong coupling regime of a non-supersymmetric gauge theory. The latter has a running coupling with an ultraviolet stable fixed point corresponding to the N=4 SU(N) super-Yang-Mills theory at large N. The running coupling has a power law behaviour, argued to be universal, that is consistent with holography. Around the critical point, our solution defines an asymptotic expansion for the gauge coupling beta-function. We also calculate the first correction to the Coulombic quark-antiquark potential.Comment: 10 pages, latex, v2: Another form of the solution is given and a reference is added, v3: a reference is added, final form to appear in PL