The characteristics of thermalization of boost-invariant plasma from holography

We report on the approach towards the hydrodynamic regime of boost-invariant N=4 super Yang-Mills plasma at strong coupling starting from various far-from-equilibrium states at tau=0. The results are obtained through numerical solution of Einstein's equations for the dual geometries, as described in detail in the companion article arXiv:1203.0755. Despite the very rich far-from-equilibrium evolution, we find surprising regularities in the form of clear correlations between initial entropy and total produced entropy, as well as between initial entropy and the temperature at thermalization, understood as the transition to a hydrodynamic description. For 29 different initial conditions that we consider, hydrodynamics turns out to be definitely applicable for proper times larger than 0.7 in units of inverse temperature at thermalization. We observe a sizable anisotropy in the energy-momentum tensor at thermalization, which is nevertheless entirely due to hydrodynamic effects. This suggests that effective thermalization in heavy ion collisions may occur significantly earlier than true thermalization.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures; see also the companion article arXiv:1203.0755; v2: figure corrected (fixes problem with Acrobat); v3: various clarifications and additional data points added; v4: typo fixed, publishe

Asymptotic perfect fluid dynamics as a consequence of AdS/CFT

We study the dynamics of strongly interacting gauge-theory matter (modelling quark-gluon plasma) in a boost-invariant setting using the AdS/CFT correspondence. Using Fefferman-Graham coordinates and with the help of holographic renormalization, we show that perfect fluid hydrodynamics emerges at large times as the unique nonsingular asymptotic solution of the nonlinear Einstein equations in the bulk. The gravity dual can be interpreted as a black hole moving off in the fifth dimension. Asymptotic solutions different from perfect fluid behaviour can be ruled out by the appearance of curvature singularities in the dual bulk geometry. Subasymptotic deviations from perfect fluid behaviour remain possible within the same framework.Comment: 19 pages, 1 figure; v2: free streaming example changed to s=1; conclusions unchange

Supergravitons from one loop perturbative N=4 SYM

We determine the partition function of 1/16 BPS operators in N=4 SYM at weak coupling at the one-loop level in the planar limit. This partition function is significantly different from the one computed at zero coupling. We find that it coincides precisely with the partition function of a gas of 1/16 BPS `supergravitons' in AdS_5xS^5.Comment: 22 pages; v2: references adde

The AdS_5xS^5 superstring worldsheet S-matrix and crossing symmetry

An S-matrix satisying the Yang-Baxter equation with symmetries relevant to the AdS_5xS^5 superstring has recently been determined up to an unknown scalar factor. Such scalar factors are typically fixed using crossing relations, however due to the lack of conventional relativistic invariance, in this case its determination remained an open problem. In this paper we propose an algebraic way to implement crossing relations for the AdS_5xS^5 superstring worldsheet S-matrix. We base our construction on a Hopf-algebraic formulation of crossing in terms of the antipode and introduce generalized rapidities living on the universal cover of the parameter space which is constructed through an auxillary, coupling constant dependent, elliptic curve. We determine the crossing transformation and write functional equations for the scalar factor of the S-matrix in the generalized rapidity plane.Comment: 27 pages, no figures; v2: sign typo fixed in (24), everything else unchange

Real symmetric random matrices and paths counting

Exact evaluation of $$ is here performed for real symmetric matrices $S$ of arbitrary order $n$, up to some integer $p$, where the matrix entries are independent identically distributed random variables, with an arbitrary probability distribution. These expectations are polynomials in the moments of the matrix entries ; they provide useful information on the spectral density of the ensemble in the large $n$ limit. They also are a straightforward tool to examine a variety of rescalings of the entries in the large $n$ limit.Comment: 23 pages, 10 figures, revised pape

Flavors in an expanding plasma

We consider the effect of an expanding plasma on probe matter by determining time-dependent D7 embeddings in the holographic dual of an expanding viscous plasma. We calculate the chiral condensate and meson spectra including contributions of viscosity. The chiral condensate essentially confirms the expectation from the static black hole. For the meson spectra we propose a scheme that is in agreement with the adiabatic approximation. New contributions arise for the vector mesons at the order of the viscosity terms.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figures; v2: accepted for publ. in Phys. Rev. D; revised mass definition agrees with adiabatic approximatio

Wrapping interactions at strong coupling -- the giant magnon

We derive generalized Luscher formulas for finite size corrections in a theory with a general dispersion relation. For the AdS_5xS^5 superstring these formulas encode leading wrapping interaction effects. We apply the generalized mu-term formula to calculate finite size corrections to the dispersion relation of the giant magnon at strong coupling. The result exactly agrees with the classical string computation of Arutyunov, Frolov and Zamaklar. The agreement involved a Borel resummation of all even loop-orders of the BES/BHL dressing factor thus providing a strong consistency check for the choice of the dressing factor.Comment: 35 pages, 2 figures; v2: comments and references adde

Multiplication law and S transform for non-hermitian random matrices

We derive a multiplication law for free non-hermitian random matrices allowing for an easy reconstruction of the two-dimensional eigenvalue distribution of the product ensemble from the characteristics of the individual ensembles. We define the corresponding non-hermitian S transform being a natural generalization of the Voiculescu S transform. In addition we extend the classical hermitian S transform approach to deal with the situation when the random matrix ensemble factors have vanishing mean including the case when both of them are centered. We use planar diagrammatic techniques to derive these results.Comment: 25 pages + 11 figure

Viscous hydrodynamics relaxation time from AdS/CFT

We consider an expanding boost-invariant plasma at strong coupling using the AdS/CFT correspondence for N=4 SYM. We determine the relaxation time in second order viscous hydrodynamics and find that it is around thirty times shorter than weak coupling expectations. We find that the nonsingularity of the dual geometry in the string frame necessitates turning on the dilaton which leads to a nonvanishing expectation value for tr F^2 behaving like tau^(-10/3).Comment: 10 pages, Mathematica script included in the source; v2: typo in (28) fixed, statement about electric/magnetic modes correcte