Light-Front Holography is a remarkable consequence of the correspondence between string theory in AdS space and conformal field theories in physical-space time. It allows string modes $Φ(z)$ in the AdS fifth dimension to be precisely mapped to the light-front wavefunctions of hadrons in terms of a specific light-front impact variable $ζ$ which measures the separation of the quark and gluonic constituents within the hadron. This mapping was originally obtained by matching the exact expression for electromagnetic current matrix elements in AdS space with the corresponding exact expression for the current matrix element using light-front theory in physical space-time. More recently we have shown that one obtains the identical holographic mapping using matrix elements of the energy-momentum tensor, thus providing an important consistency test and verification of holographic mapping from AdS to physical observables defined on the light-front. The resulting light-front Schrodinger equations predicted from AdS/QCD give a good representation of the observed meson and baryon spectra and give excellent phenomenological predictions for amplitudes such as electromagnetic form factors and decay constants.
Using ideas from Light Front Holography, we discuss the calculation of hadronic properties. In this talk I will pay special attention to hadronic masses and the nucleon helicity-independent generalized parton distributions of quarks in the zero skewness case
Using holography, we study the collision of planar shock waves in strongly coupled N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory. This requires the numerical solution of a dual gravitational initial value problem in asymptotically anti-de Sitter spacetime.
We reply to L. Ya. Glozman's Comment "Is a consistent holographic description of excited hadrons with fixed $L$ possible?" In general, the solutions of the bound state Hamiltonian equation of motion in QCD have Fock state components with different $L$, and consequently hadronic relativistic wave equations derived in the framework of light-front holography share this property. For example, the proton eigenstate has components with L=0 and L=1. The results of AdS/QCD are consistent with the requirements of chiral symmetry and do not violate any fundamental physical principle. This is further ill…
Starting from the Hamiltonian equation of motion in QCD, we identify an invariant light-front coordinate $ζ$ which allows the separation of the dynamics of quark and gluon binding from the kinematics of constituent spin and internal orbital angular momentum. The result is a single variable light-front Schrodinger equation for QCD which determines the eigenspectrum and the light-front wavefunctions of hadrons for general spin and orbital angular momentum. This light-front wave equation is equivalent to the equations of motion which describe the propagation of spin-$J$ modes on anti-de Sitter (A…
I survey recent developments in hadron physics which follow from the application of superconformal quantum mechanics and light-front holography. This includes new insights into the physics of color confinement, chiral symmetry, the spectroscopy and dynamics of hadrons, as well as surprising supersymmetric relations between the masses of mesons, baryons, and tetraquarks. I also will discuss some novel features of QCD -- such as color transparency, hidden color, and asymmetric intrinsic heavy-quark phenomena. The elimination of renormalization scale ambiguities and the modification of QCD sum ru…
The holographic interpretation is a useful tool to describe 5D field theories in a 4D language. In particular it allows one to relate 5D AdS theories with 4D CFTs. We elaborate on the 5D/4D dictionary for the case of fermions in AdS$_5$ with boundaries. This dictionary is quite useful to address phenomenological issues in a very simple manner, as we show by giving some examples.
One of the most important nonperturbative methods for solving QCD is quantization at fixed light-front time, τ= t+z/c -- Dirac's "Front Form". The eigenvalues of the light-front QCD Hamiltonian predict the hadron spectrum and the eigensolutions provide the light-front wavefunctions which describe hadron structure. More generally, we show that the valence Fock-state wavefunctions of the light-front QCD Hamiltonian satisfy a single-variable relativistic equation of motion, analogous to the nonrelativistic radial Schrödinger equation, with an effective confining potential U which systematically i…
The eigenvalues of the light-front QCD Hamiltonian, quantized at fixed light-front time τ= t+z/c, predict the hadronic mass spectrum and the corresponding eigensolutions provide the light-front wavefunctions which describe hadron structure. More generally, we show that the valence Fock-state wavefunctions of the light-front QCD Hamiltonian satisfy a single-variable relativistic equation of motion, analogous to the nonrelativistic radial Schrödinger equation, with an effective confining potential $U$ which systematically incorporates the effects of higher quark and gluon Fock states. We outline…
Gauge/gravity duality leads to a simple, analytical, and phenomenologically compelling nonperturbative approximation to the full light-front QCD Hamiltonian. This approach, called "Light-Front Holography", successfully describes the spectroscopy of light-quark meson and baryons, their elastic and transition form factors, and other hadronic properties. The bound-state Schrodinger and Dirac equations of the soft-wall AdS/QCD model predict linear Regge trajectories which have the same slope in orbital angular momentum L and radial quantum number n for both mesons and baryons. Light-front holograp…
We describe a procedure to extend the light-front holographic approach to hadronic physics to include light-quark masses. The proposed framework allows us to extend the formalism of de Alfaro, Fubini and Furlan to the frame-independent light-front Hamiltonian theory in the approximation where the dynamics in the invariant transverse variable is unchanged to first order in the quark masses. The confinement potential follows from an effective theory which encodes the fundamental conformality of the classical QCD Lagrangian and leads to a semiclassical relativistic light-front wave equation for a…
We summarize the light-front coupled-cluster (LFCC) method for the solution of field-theoretic bound-state eigenvalue problems and indicate the connection with light-front holographic QCD. This includes a sample application of the LFCC method and leads to a relativistic quark model for mesons that adds longitudinal dynamics to the usual transverse light-front holographic Schrodinger equation.
Light-front holography offers a successful first semiclassical approximation to hadronic spectroscopy and dynamics. We review its underlying assumptions, its remarkable predictions as well as attempts to go beyond the semiclassical approximation in order to the describe a wide range of data with a universal AdS/QCD mass scale.
The correspondence between theories in anti-de Sitter space and conformal field theories in physical space-time leads to an analytic, semiclassical model for strongly-coupled QCD. Light-front holography allows hadronic amplitudes in the AdS fifth dimension to be mapped to frame-independent light-front wavefunctions of hadrons in physical space-time, thus providing a relativistic description of hadrons at the amplitude level. We identify the AdS coordinate $z$ with an invariant light-front coordinate $ζ$ which separates the dynamics of quark and gluon binding from the kinematics of constituent …
The combination of Anti-de Sitter space (AdS) methods with light-front (LF) holography provides a remarkably accurate first approximation for the spectra and wavefunctions of meson and baryon light-quark bound states. The resulting bound-state Hamiltonian equation of motion in QCD leads to relativistic light-front wave equations in terms of an invariant impact variable $ζ$ which measures the separation of the quark and gluonic constituents within the hadron at equal light-front time. These equations of motion in physical space-time are equivalent to the equations of motion which describe the p…
Light-Front Holography, a remarkable feature of the AdS/CFT correspondence, maps amplitudes in anti-de Sitter (AdS) space to frame-independent light-front wavefunctions of hadrons in physical space-time. The model leads to an effective confining light-front QCD Hamiltonian and a single-variable light-front Schrodinger equation which determines the eigenspectrum and the light-front wavefunctions of hadrons for general spin and orbital angular momentum. The coordinate z in AdS space is identified with a Lorentz-invariant coordinate zeta which measures the separation of the constituents within a …
Starting from concrete AdS/CFT dual pairs, one can introduce ingredients which produce cosmological solutions, including metastable de Sitter and its decay to non-accelerating FRW. We present simple FRW solutions sourced by magnetic flavor branes and analyze correlation functions and particle and brane dynamics. To obtain a holographic description, we exhibit a time-dependent warped metric on the solution and interpret the resulting redshifted region as a Lorentzian low energy effective field theory in one fewer dimension. At finite times, this theory has a finite cutoff, a propagating lower d…
We give an overview of recent progress into the infrared structure of QCD based on the gauge/gravity correspondence and light-front quantization, where the color confining interaction for mesons and baryons is determined by an underlying superconformal algebraic structure. This new approach to hadron physics gives remarkable connections and predictions across the entire mass spectrum of hadrons and also describes the infrared behavior of the strong coupling. More recently, an extensive study of form factors, polarized and unpolarized parton distributions and the sea quark contribution to the n…
The holographic mapping of gravity in AdS space to QCD, quantized at fixed light-front time, provides a precise relation between the bound-state amplitudes in the fifth dimension of AdS space and the boost-invariant light-front wavefunctions describing the internal structure of hadrons in physical space-time. In particular, the elastic and transition form factors of the pion and the nucleons are well described in this framework. The light-front AdS/QCD holographic approach thus gives a frame-independent first approximation of the color-confining dynamics, spectroscopy, and excitation spectra o…
Light-Front Quantization -- Dirac's "Front Form" -- provides a physical, frame-independent formalism for hadron dynamics and structure. Observables such as structure functions, transverse momentum distributions, and distribution amplitudes are defined from the hadronic LFWFs. One obtains new insights into the hadronic mass scale, the hadronic spectrum, and the functional form of the QCD running coupling in the nonperturbative domain using light-front holography. In addition, superconformal algebra leads to remarkable supersymmetric relations between mesons and baryons. I also discuss evidence …
Light-front holography allows hadronic amplitudes in the AdS/QCD fifth dimension to be mapped to frame-independent light-front wavefunctions of hadrons in physical space-time, thus providing a relativistic description of hadrons at the amplitude level. The AdS coordinate z is identified with an invariant light-front coordinate zeta which separates the dynamics of quark and gluon binding from the kinematics of constituent spin and internal orbital angular momentum. The result is a single-variable light-front Schrodinger equation for QCD which determines the eigenspectrum and the light-front wav…
The correspondence between theories in anti-de Sitter space and field theories in physical space-time leads to an analytic, semiclassical model for strongly-coupled QCD which has scale invariance at short distances and color confinement at large distances. These equations, for both mesons and baryons, give a very good representation of the observed hadronic spectrum, including a zero mass pion. Light-front holography allows hadronic amplitudes in the AdS fifth dimension to be mapped to frame-independent light-front wavefunctions of hadrons in physical space-time, thus providing a relativistic …
The formation of marginally trapped surfaces in the off-center collision of two shock waves on AdS_D (with D=4,5,6,7 and 8) is studied numerically. We focus on the case when the two waves collide with nonvanishing impact parameter while the sources are located at the same value of the holographic coordinate. In all cases a critical value of the impact parameter is found above which no trapped surface is formed. The numerical results show the existence of a simple scaling relation between the critical impact parameter and the energy of the colliding waves. Using the isometries of AdS_D we relat…
The electromagnetic form factors of nucleons are calculated using an AdS/QCD model by considering a Dirac field coupled to a vector field in the 5-dimensional AdS space. We also calculate a gravitational or energy-momentum form factor by perturbing the metric from the static AdS solution. We consider both the hard-wall model where the AdS geometry is cutoff at z_0 and the soft-wall model where the geometry is smoothly cut off by a background dilaton field.
We analyse the worldline holographic framework for fermions. Worldline holography is based on the observation that in the worldline approach to quantum field theory, sources of a quantum field theory over Mink$_4$ naturally form a field theory over AdS$_5$ to all orders in the elementary fields and in the sources. Schwinger's proper time of the worldline formalism automatically appears with the physical four spacetime dimensions in an AdS$_5$ geometry. The worldline holographic effective action in general and the proper-time profiles of the sources in particular solve a renormalisation group e…
Asymptotically Anti-de Sitter Kerr black holes (we focus here on the five-dimensional case) are associated holographically with matter at conformal infinity which has a non-zero angular momentum density. It is natural to attempt to associate this angular momentum with the recently discovered vorticity of the plasmas produced in peripheral heavy-ion collisions. We assume that an AdS$_5$-Kerr black hole with angular momentum to mass ratio $\mathcal{A}$ is dual to boundary matter with an angular momentum density to energy density ratio also equal to $\mathcal{A}$. With this assumption, we find th…
We evaluate the cross section for the pion induced Drell-Yan process in two different models of the pion light-front wave function, inspired by light-front holographic approaches. We obtain the valence quark distribution functions in those models, which after QCD evolution, are consistent with the experimental data from the E-0615 experiment at Fermilab. Supplemented by the parton distribution functions of the target nuclei, we obtain the cross section consistent with the experimental data for the $π^-$ Nucleus $\rightarrow {μ^+μ^-X}$ Drell-Yan process.
For a quantum field theory over four-dimensional Minkowski space at zero temperature worldline holography states, that it can be expressed as a field theory of its sources over five-dimensional AdS space to all orders in its elementary fields, the fifth dimension being Schwinger's proper time of the worldline formalism. For the finite temperatures studied here worldline holography yields either a thermal AdS space or an AdS black hole as five-dimensional manifolds. Comparing the values of the five-dimensional action for the two alternatives does not predict a phase transition as a function of …
We present an analytically solvable 3D light-front Hamiltonian model for hadrons that extends light-front holography by including finite mass quarks and a longitudinal confinement term. We propose that the model is suitable as an improved analytic approximation to QCD at a low resolution scale. We demonstrate that it preserves desired Lorentz symmetries and it produces improved agreement with the experimental mass spectroscopy and other properties of the light mesons. Importantly, the model also respects chiral symmetry and the Gell-Mann-Oakes-Renner relation.
To a first semiclassical approximation one can reduce the multi-parton light-front problem in QCD to an effective one-dimensional quantum field theory, which encodes the fundamental conformal symmetry of the classical QCD Lagrangian. This procedure leads to a relativistic light-front wave equation for arbitrary spin which incorporates essential spectroscopic and non-perturbative dynamical features of hadron physics. The mass scale for confinement and higher dimensional holographic mapping to AdS space are also emergent properties of this framework.
We study the holographic dual of asymmetrically warped space-times, which are asymptotically AdS. The self-tuning of the cosmological constant is reinterpreted as a cancellation of the visible sector stress-energy tensor by the contribution of a hidden CFT, charged under a spontaneously broken global symmetry. The apparent violation of 4D causality due to bulk geodesics is justified by considering that the CFT feels the background metric as smeared out over a length of the order of the AdS radius.
We give an overview the results of some numerical simulations of Bjorken flow in the framework of the AdS/CFT correspondence, as described in arXiv:1411.1969.
We use AdS/QCD holographic Distributions Amplitudes for the vector mesons $ρ$ and $K^*$ in order to predict the radiative decays $B \to ργ$ and $B \to K^* γ$ as well as the semileptonic decays $B \to ρl ν$ and $B \to K^* μ^+ μ^-$. For the radiative decays, we find that the AdS/QCD DAs offer the advantage of avoiding end-point singularities when computing power suppressed contributions. For the semileptonic decays $B \to ρl ν$ and $B \to K^* μ^+ μ^-$, we compare our predictions to the latest BaBar and LHCb data respectively.
AdS/QCD, the correspondence between theories in a modified five-dimensional anti-de Sitter space and confining field theories in physical space-time, provides a remarkable semiclassical model for hadron physics. Light-front holography allows hadronic amplitudes in the AdS fifth dimension to be mapped to frame-independent light-front wavefunctions of hadrons in physical space-time, thus providing a relativistic description of hadrons at the amplitude level. We identify the AdS coordinate $z$ with an invariant light-front coordinate $ζ$ which separates the dynamics of quark and gluon binding fro…
QCD is well understood at short distances where perturbative calculations are feasible. Establishing an explicit analytic connection between the short-distance regime and the large-distance physics of quark confinement has been a long-sought goal. A major challenge is to relate the scale $Λ_{s}$ underlying the evolution of the QCD coupling in the perturbative regime to the masses of hadrons. We show here how new theoretical insights into the behavior of QCD at large distances leads to such a relation. The resulting prediction for $Λ_{s}$ in the $\overline{MS}$ scheme agrees well with experimen…
The correspondence between theories in anti-de Sitter space and conformal field theories in physical space-time leads to an analytic, semiclassical model for strongly-coupled QCD which has scale invariance at short distances and color confinement at large distances. Light-front holography is a remarkable feature of AdS/CFT: it allows hadronic amplitudes in the AdS fifth dimension to be mapped to frame-independent light-front wavefunctions of hadrons in physical space-time, thus providing a relativistic description of hadrons at the amplitude level. Some novel features of QCD are discussed, inc…
A general procedure for obtaining frame-independent, three-dimensional light-front coordinate-space wave functions is introduced. The third spatial coordinate, $\tilde z$ , is the frame independent coordinate conjugate to the light-front momentum coordinate $x={k^+\over P^+}$ which appears in the momentum-space light-front wave functions underlying generalized parton distributions, structure functions, distribution amplitudes, form factors, and other hadronic observables. These causal light-front coordinate-space wave functions are used to derive a general expression for the quark distribution…
We present analytic parametrizations for the $γ^\ast N \to N(1440)$ form factors derived from light-front holography in leading twist approximation. The new parametrizations describe the electromagnetic form factors using analytic functions dependent on the masses of the $ρ$ meson and respective radial excitations, as well as the masses of the nucleon and the resonance $N(1440)$. The free parameters of the model, associated with three independent couplings, are interpreted as bare couplings, and are fixed by the nucleon data for large $Q^2$. The proposed parametrizations compare remarkably wel…
The structure of the nucleon and the first radial excitation of the nucleon, the Roper, $N(1440)$, is studied within the formalism of Light-Front holography. The nucleon elastic form factors and $γ^\ast N \to N(1440)$ transition form factors are calculated under the assumption of the dominance of the valence quark degrees of freedom. Contrary to the previous studies, the bare parameters of the model associated with the valence quark are fixed by the empirical data for large momentum transfer ($Q^2$) assuming that the corrections to the three-quark picture (meson cloud contributions) are suppre…
