Physical Response Functions of Strongly Coupled Massive Quantum Liquids

We study physical properties of strongly coupled massive quantum liquids from their spectral functions using the AdS/CFT correspondence. The generic model that we consider is dense, heavy fundamental matter coupled to SU(N_c) super Yang-Mills theory at finite temperature above the deconfinement phase transition but below the scale set by the baryon number density. In this setup, we study the current-current correlators of the baryon number density using new techniques that employ a scaling behavior in the dual geometry. Our results, the AC conductivity, the quasi-particle spectrum and the Drude-limit parameters like the relaxation time are simple temperature-independent expressions that depend only on the mass-squared to density ratio and display a crossover between a baryon- and meson-dominated regime. We concentrated on the (2+1)-dimensional defect case, but in principle our results can also be generalized straightforwardly to other cases.Comment: 21 pages, 10 figures, extra paragraph and figure are added in response to referee's comment

Massive Quantum Liquids from Holographic Angel's Trumpets

We explore the small-temperature regime in the deconfined phase of massive fundamental matter at finite baryon number density coupled to the 3+1 dimensional N=4 SYM theory. In this setting, we can demonstrate a new type of non-trivial temperature-independent scaling solutions for the probe brane embeddings. Focusing mostly on matter supported in 2+1 dimensions, the thermodynamics indicate that there is a quantum liquid with interesting density-dependent low-temperature physics. We also comment about 3+1 and 1+1 dimensional systems, where we further find for example a new thermodynamic instability.Comment: 18+1 pages, 6 figures; replaced fig. 6 and comments in sec. 5.2; minor explanations added and typos fixed, final version published in JHEP (modulo fig. 3); factor of \sqrt{\lambda} and corresponding comments fixe

Hot Defect Superconformal Field Theory in an External Magnetic Field

In this paper we investigate the influence of an external magnetic field on a flavoured holographic gauge theory dual to the D3/D5 intersection at finite temperature. Our study shows that the external magnetic field has a freezing effect on the confinement/ deconfinement phase transition. We construct the corresponding phase diagram. We investigate some thermodynamic quantities of the theory. A study of the entropy reveals enhanced relative jump of the entropy at the "chiral" phase transition. A study of the magnetization shows that both the confined and deconfined phases exhibit diamagnetic response. The diamagnetic response in the deconfined phase has a stronger temperature dependence reflecting the temperature dependence of the conductivity. We study the meson spectrum of the theory and analyze the stability of the different phases looking at both normal and quasi-normal semi-classical excitations. For the symmetry breaking phase we analyze the corresponding pseudo-Goldstone modes and prove that they satisfy non-relativistic dispersion relation.Comment: 42 pages, 14 figure

Holographic Experiments on Defects

Using the AdS/CFT correspondence, we study the anisotropic charge transport properties of both supersymmetric and non-supersymmetric matter fields on (2+1)-dimensional defects coupled to a (3+1)-dimensional N=4 SYM "heat bath". We focus on the cases of a finite external background magnetic field, finite net charge density and finite mass and their combinations. In this context, we also discuss the limitations due to operator mixing that appears in a few situations and that we ignore in our analysis. At high frequencies, we discover a spectrum of quasi-particle resonances due to the magnetic field and finite density and at small frequencies, we perform a Drude-like expansion around the DC limit. Both of these regimes display many generic features and some features that we attribute to strong coupling, such as a minimum DC conductivity and an unusual behavior of the "cyclotron" and plasmon frequencies, which become related to the resonances found in the conformal case in an earlier paper. We further study the hydrodynamic regime and the relaxation properties, from which the system displays a set of different possible transitions to the collisionless regime. The mass dependence can be cast in two regimes: a generic relativistic behavior dominated by the UV and a non-linear hydrodynamic behavior dominated by the IR. In the massless case, we furthermore extend earlier results from the literature to find an interesting self-duality under a transformation of the conductivity and the exchange of density and magnetic field.Comment: 76 pages, 45 figures (jpg and pdf), IJMPA style; section on operator mixing and references added, typos fixed, final version published in IJMP

Thermodynamics of Holographic Defects

Using the AdS/CFT correspondence, we study the thermodynamic properties and the phase diagram of matter fields on (2+1)-dimensional defects coupled to a (3+1)-dimensional N=4 SYM "heat bath". Considering a background magnetic field, (net) quark density, defect "magnitude" $\delta N_c$ and the mass of the matter, we study the defect contribution to the thermodynamic potentials and their first and second derivatives to map the phases and study their physical properties. We find some features that are qualitatively similar to other systems e.g. in (3+1) dimensions and a number of features that are particular to the defect nature, such as its magnetic properties, unexpected properties at T->0 and finite density; and the finite $\delta N_c$ effects, e.g. a diverging susceptibility and vanishing density of states at small temperatures, a physically consistent negative heat capacity and new types of consistent phases.Comment: 33 pages, 16 figures (jpg and pdf), typos fixed and references added, final version published in JHE

Collective Excitations of Holographic Quantum Liquids in a Magnetic Field

We use holography to study N=4 supersymmetric SU(Nc) Yang-Mills theory in the large-Nc and large-coupling limits coupled to a number Nf << Nc of (n+1)-dimensional massless supersymmetric hypermultiplets in the Nc representation of SU(Nc), with n=2,3. We introduce a temperature T, a baryon number chemical potential mu, and a baryon number magnetic field B, and work in a regime with mu >> T,\sqrt{B}. We study the collective excitations of these holographic quantum liquids by computing the poles in the retarded Green's function of the baryon number charge density operator and the associated peaks in the spectral function. We focus on the evolution of the collective excitations as we increase the frequency relative to T, i.e. the hydrodynamic/collisionless crossover. We find that for all B, at low frequencies the tallest peak in the spectral function is associated with hydrodynamic charge diffusion. At high frequencies the tallest peak is associated with a sound mode similar to the zero sound mode in the collisionless regime of a Landau Fermi liquid. The sound mode has a gap proportional to B, and as a result for intermediate frequencies and for B sufficiently large compared to T the spectral function is strongly suppressed. We find that the hydrodynamic/collisionless crossover occurs at a frequency that is approximately B-independent.Comment: 45 pages, 8 png and 47 pdf images in 22 figure

Transport Properties of Holographic Defects

We study the charge transport properties of fields confined to a (2+1)-dimensional defect coupled to (3+1)-dimensional super-Yang-Mills at large-\nc and strong coupling, using AdS/CFT techniques applied to linear response theory. The dual system is described by \nf probe D5- or D7-branes in the gravitational background of \nc black D3-branes. Surprisingly, the transport properties of both defect CFT's are essentially identical -- even though the D7-brane construction breaks all supersymmetries. We find that the system possesses a conduction threshold given by the wave-number of the perturbation and that the charge transport arises from a quasiparticle spectrum which is consistent with an intuitive picture where the defect acquires a finite width. We also examine finite-$\lambda$ modifications arising from higher derivative interactions in the probe brane action.Comment: 54 pages, 22 figures, references added, minor changes to figures and comments, final version published in JHE

On Uniqueness of supersymmetric Black holes in AdS(5)

We study the possibility of having Black hole of spherical and ring horizon topology with five independent charges in the $U(1)^3$-model of 5D gauge supergravity. To study these possibilities we consider not only the known result obtained by local supersymmetry analysis but include the input coming from non-local properties of the solutions, like the attractor mechanism, the entropy function of Sen, the Euclidean formulation and general properties of the uplift to ten dimension. For the spherical case, we found that there is no room for more general Black holes than the ones already describe in hep-th/0601156. On the other hand, if a solution of ring horizon topology exists, we conclude that it must be labeled by three independent parameters only, since it has to satisfy two independent constraints that we explicitly find in terms of its chemical potentials. At the end of the article, based on all the local and non-local information, we put forward a conjecture on the constraints that characterize general Black holes dual to ${\cal N}=4$ SYM.Comment: 16 pages, typos corrected and references adde

Self-Sensing of a Magnetically Actuated Prism

We demonstrate a method for self-sensing of a magnetically actuated prism that can be used, e.g., in a feedback-loop without the need of additional sensors. In order to use the impedance of the actuation coils as a measurement parameter, we first obtained the optimal measurement frequency that is well separated from the actuation frequencies and at the same time provides the best compromise between sensitivity to the position and robustness. We then developed a combined actuation and measurement driver, and correlated its output signal to the mechanical state of the prism using a defined calibration sequence. We demonstrate that we can reliably measure the state of each actuator and determine the tilt angle of the prism with an accuracy of ±0.1∘ in the polar angle over a range of ±4∘ and ±20 mrad in the azimuthal angle