Within the gauge/gravity correspondence, we discuss the general formulation of the shockwave metric which is dual to a 'nucleus' described by the strongly-coupled N=4 SYM theory in the limit where the number of colors Nc is arbitrarily large. We emphasize that the 'nucleus' must possess Nc^2 degrees of freedom per unit volume, so like a finite-temperature plasma, in order for a supergravity description to exist. We critically reassess previous proposals for introducing transverse inhomogeneity in the shockwave and formulate a new proposal in that sense, which involves no external source but requires the introduction of an 'infrared' cutoff which mimics confinement. This cutoff however plays no role when the shockwave is probed by a highly virtual projectile, so like in deep inelastic scattering. We consider two such projectiles, the dilaton and the R-current, and compute the respective structure functions including unitarity corrections. We find that there are no leading-twist contributions to the structure functions at high virtuality, meaning that there are no point-like constituents in the strongly coupled 'nucleus'. In the black-disk regime at low virtuality, the structure functions are suggestive of parton saturation with occupation numbers of order one. The saturation momentum Qs grows with the energy like Qs^2 ~ 1/x (with x the Bjorken variable), which is the hallmark of graviton exchanges and is also necessary for the fulfillment of the energy-momentum sum rules.
Within the AdS/CFT correspondence, the shockwave metric has been widely used as a gravity dual for a fast moving nucleus. Here we propose a picture for particle production in deep inelastic scattering off a shockwave with the projectile represented by the $\mathcal{R}$-current. By using the method developed in \cite{Avsar:2009xf} to find an explicit expression for the scattered field, we are able to show that the scattered field can be written in terms of time-like and space-like vacuum states where the time-like states are identified with the outgoing particles. To support this picture, we ca…
We study deep inelastic scattering at large-'t Hooft coupling and finite $x$ from gauge/string duality beyond single-hadron final states which gives the leading large-$N_c$ contribution. Within the supergravity approximation, we calculate the subleading large-$N_c$ contribution by introducing an extra hadron into the final states. We find the contribution from these double-hadron final states will dominate in the Bjorken limit $q^2\rightarrow \infty$ compared with the single-hadron states. We discuss the implications of our results.
We calculate deep inelastic structure functions for mesons in the D3-D7 brane model, that incorporates flavour to the AdS/CFT correspondence. We consider two different prescriptions for the hadronic current dual: a gauge field in the AdS bulk and a gauge field on the D7 brane. We also calculate elastic form factors in both cases. We compare our results with other holographic models.
Deep inelastic structure functions have been calculated by Polchinski and Strassler in gauge/string duality introducing a hard infrared (IR) cut off in AdS space. Here we investigate this problem using a soft IR cut off that leads to linear Regge trajectories for mesons. We calculate the structure functions for scalar particles in the large x regime where supergravity approximation holds and the small x regime where massive string states contribute. We also propose a hybrid model to calculate structure functions for fermions in the supergravity approximation. In the deep inelastic limit our re…
We investigate deep inelastic scattering off the polarized "neutron" using gauge/string duality. The "neutron" corresponds to a supergravity mode of the neutral dilatino. Through introducing the Pauli interaction term into the action in $\textrm{AdS}_{5}$ space, we calculate the polarized deep inelastic structure functions of the "neutron" in supergravity approximation at large t' Hooft coupling $λ$ and finite $x$ with $λ^{-1/2}\ll x<1$. In comparison with the charged dilatino "proton," which has been obtained in the previous work by Gao and Xiao, we find the structure functions of the "neutro…
In this work we use the string/gauge duality within the Softwall Model (SW). In this model a dilaton field is introduced in the action for the fields playing the role of a soft infrared (IR) cutoff. The SW model is very useful as it provides linear Regge trajectories for mesons. Here, using a $10-$dimensional SW model, we calculate the corresponding structure functions for deep inelastic scattering (DIS) in which electrons are scattered off hadrons in a kinematical regime where the hadrons are broken apart, with high virtuality $q$, in the exponentially small $x$ (Bjorken parameter) regime. Ou…
We calculate the cross section of an ultra relativistic nucleus scattering on a qq^(bar) pair at large coupling in N=4 SUSY gauge theory. We study the problem in the context of the AdS/CFT correspondence. The nucleus is modeled as a gravitational shockwave in an AdS_5 background moving along the light cone. The dipole qq^(bar) is represented by a Wilson loop moving in the opposite direction. Due to the correspondence, calculating the scattering amplitude of the Wilson loop with the nucleus reduces to calculating the extreme value of the Nambu-Goto action for an open string. Its two end points …
For gauge theories which admit a dual string description, we analyze deep inelastic scattering at strong 't Hooft coupling and high energy, in the vicinity of the unitarity limit. We discuss the onset of unitarity corrections and determine the saturation line which separates weak scattering from strong scattering in the parameter space of rapidity and photon virtuality. We discover that the approach towards unitarity proceeds through two different mechanisms, depending upon the photon virtuality Q^2 : single Pomeron exchange at relatively low Q^2 and, respectively, multiple graviton exchanges …
Differential cross sections of deep inelastic scattering of charged leptons from hadrons are investigated by using the gauge/string duality. We consider vector mesons derived from different holographic dual models obtaining a general expression. We focus on the strongly coupled regime of dual gauge theories for different values of the Bjorken parameter. We find new predictions which are particularly interesting for differential scattering cross sections of polarized leptons scattered off polarized vector mesons. We also carry out a detailed comparison of the moments of the structure functions …
In this paper, we investigate deep inelastic and elastic scattering on a polarized spin-1/2 hadron using gauge/string duality. This spin-1/2 hadron corresponds to a supergravity mode of the dilatino. The polarized deep inelastic structure functions are computed in supergravity approximation at large t' Hooft coupling $λ$ and finite $x$ with $λ^{-1/2}\ll x<1$. Furthermore, we discuss the moments of all structure functions, and propose an interesting sum rule $\int_{0}^{1} \textrm{d}x g_2(x, q^2) =0$ for $g_2$ structure function which is known as the Burkhardt-Cottingham sum rule in QCD. In the …
We investigate tree-level five-point amplitudes in scalar-QCD expressed in terms of Sudakov variables and find the equivalent "gravitational" counterparts using the color-kinematics duality proposed by Bern, Carrasco, and Johannson. Taking the multi-Regge limit in the gravitational amplitudes, we show that those pieces in the coupling of two reggeized gravitons to one on-shell graviton directly stemming from the double copy of the vertex for two reggeized gluons to one on-shell gluon are universal and properly reproduced by the duality.
$1/N^2$ corrections to deep inelastic scattering (DIS) of charged leptons from glueballs at strong coupling are investigated in the framework of the gauge/gravity duality. The structure functions $F_1$ and $F_2$ (and also $F_L$) are studied at subleading order in the $1/N^2$ expansion, in terms of $q^2$ and the Bjorken parameter $x$. The relevant type IIB supergravity one-loop diagrams (which correspond to DIS with two-hadron final states) are studied in detail, while $n$-loop diagrams (corresponding to DIS with $(n+1)$-hadron final states) are briefly discussed. The $1/N^{2n}$ and $Λ^2/q^2$ d…
We study deep inelastic scattering in gauge theories which have dual string descriptions. As a function of $gN$ we find a transition. For small $gN$, the dominant operators in the OPE are the usual ones, of approximate twist two, corresponding to scattering from weakly interacting partons. For large $gN$, double-trace operators dominate, corresponding to scattering from entire hadrons (either the original `valence' hadron or part of a hadron cloud.) At large $gN$ we calculate the structure functions. As a function of Bjorken $x$ there are three regimes: $x$ of order one, where the scattering p…
The world-line representation of quantum field theory is a powerful framework for the computation of perturbative multi-leg Feynman amplitudes. In particular, in gauge theories, it provides an efficient way, via point particle Grassmann functional integrals, to compute spinor and color traces in these amplitudes. Further, semi-classical approximations to quantum mechanical world-line trajectories provide useful intuition in a wide range of dynamical problems. We develop here the world-line approach to compute deeply inelastic structure functions in the small x Regge limit of QCD. In particular…
We study in detail deep inelastic scattering in the 't Hooft model. We are able to analytically check current conservation and to obtain analytic expressions for the matrix elements with relative precision O(1/Q^2) for 1-x >> β^2/Q^2. This allows us to compute the electron-meson differential cross section and its moments with 1/Q^2 precision. For the former we find maximal violations of quark-hadron duality, as it is expected for a large N_c analysis. For the latter we find violations of the operator product expansion at next-to-leading order in the 1/Q^2 expansion.
The role of local higher-twist ($τ> 3$) spin-1/2 fermionic operators of the strongly coupled ${\cal {N}}=4$ supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory on the symmetric and antisymmetric deep inelastic scattering (DIS) structure functions is investigated. The calculations are carried out in terms of the duality between ${\cal {N}}=4$ SYM theory and type IIB supergravity on AdS$_5 \times S^5$. Particularly, we explicitly obtain the structure functions for single-trace spin-1/2 fermionic operators in the 20$^*$ and 60$^*$ irreducible representations of $SU(4)_R$, corresponding to twists 4 and 5, respective…
Deep inelastic scattering (DIS) of charged leptons off scalar mesons in the $1/N$ expansion is studied by using the gauge/gravity duality. We focus on the D3D7-brane system and investigate the corresponding structure functions by considering both the high energy limit and the $1/N$ expansion. These limits do not commute. From the D7-brane DBI action we derive a Lagrangian at sub-leading order in the D7-brane fluctuations and obtain a number of interactions some of which become relevant for two-hadron final-state DIS. By considering first the high energy limit followed by the large $N$ one, our…
We study polarized deep inelastic scattering of charged leptons from spin-$1/2$ hadrons at low values of the Bjorken parameter and large 't Hooft coupling in terms of the gauge/string theory duality. We calculate the structure functions from type IIB superstring theory scattering amplitudes. We discuss the role of the non-Abelian Chern-Simons term and the Pauli term from the five-dimensional $SU(4)$ gauged supergravity. Furthermore, the exponentially small-$x$ regime where Regge physics becomes important is analyzed in detail for the antisymmetric structure functions. In this case the holograp…
We critically examine the question of scaling of the Deep Inelastic Scattering process in the medium Bjorken x region on a scalar boson in the framework of the AdS/QCD correspondence. To get the right polarization structure of the forward electroproduction amplitude, we show that one needs to add (at least) the scalar to scalar and scalar to vector hadronic amplitudes. This illustrates how the partonic picture may emerge from a simple scenario based on the AdS/QCD correspondence, provided one allows the conformal dimension of the hadronic field to equal 1 and use the concept of "hadron - parto…
We develop a formalism where the hard and soft pomeron contributions to high energy scattering arise as leading Regge poles of a single kernel in holographic QCD. The kernel is obtained using effective field theory inspired by Regge theory of a 5-d string theory. It describes the exchange of higher spin fields in the graviton Regge trajectory that are dual to glueball states of twist two. For a specific holographic QCD model we describe Deep Inelastic Scattering in the Regge limit of low Bjorken x, finding good agreement with experimental data from HERA. The observed rise of the effective pome…
We study the deep inelastic scattering (DIS) of a proton-targeted lepton in the presence of gluon condensation using gauge/gravity duality. We use a modified $AdS_5$ background where the modification parameter $c$ corresponds to the gluon condensation in the boundary theory. Firstly, when examining the electromagnetic field, we find that non-zero $c$ can increase the magnitude of the field. Our goal is to find the acceptable value of $c$ for this scattering and our method is based on setting the mass of the proton as an eigenvalue of the baryonic state equations of the DIS to find the acceptab…
From a deformed AdS$_5$ space, we used the string/gauge duality to study the deep inelastic scattering for unpolarized fermions with spin 1/2, considering the large Bjorken $x$ parameter regime. Here, we also took into account an anomalous dimension of an operator which represents fermions at the boundary. From this analysis, we compute the corresponding structure functions, which are dependent on $x$ and on the photon virtuality $q$. The results achieved are in agreement with the experimental data.
Within gauge/gravity duality, we consider the local quench-like time evolution obtained by joining two 1+1-dimensional heat baths at different temperatures at time t=0. A steady state forms and expands in space. For the 2+1-dimensional gravity dual, we find that the shockwaves expanding the steady-state region are of spacelike nature in the bulk despite being null at the boundary. However, they do not transport information. Moreover, by adapting the time-dependent Hubeny-Rangamani-Takayanagi prescription, we holographically calculate the entanglement entropy and also the mutual information for…
The thermal deformation of the critical point action of the 2D tricritical Ising model gives rise to an exact scattering theory with seven massive excitations based on the exceptional $E_7$ Lie algebra. The high and low temperature phases of this model are related by duality. This duality guarantees that the leading and sub-leading magnetisation operators, $σ(x)$ and $σ'(x)$, in either phase are accompanied by associated disorder operators, $μ(x)$ and $μ'(x)$. Working specifically in the high temperature phase, we write down the sets of bootstrap equations for these four operators. For $σ(x)$ …
By studying the effect of the order(α'^3) string theory corrections to type IIB supergravity, including those corrections involving the Ramond-Ramond five-form field strength, we obtain the corrected equations of motion of an Abelian perturbation of the AdS_5-Schwarzschild black hole. We then use the gauge theory/string theory duality to examine the coupling-constant dependence of vector current correlators associated to a gauged U(1) sub-group of the global R-symmetry group of strongly-coupled N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory at finite temperature. The corrections induce a set of higher-d…
We study deep inelastic scattering (DIS) of charged leptons from polarised spin-1/2 hadrons in terms of the gauge/gravity duality. We calculate the structure functions related to spin-1/2 fermionic operators of ${\cal {N}}=4$ SYM theory in the planar limit and at strong coupling. Specifically, we focus on the twist-3 operator which is dual to a certain dilatino mode and gives the leading contribution to the hadronic tensor. We consider the Bjorken variable within the parametric range $λ^{-1/2}_{SYM} \ll x < 1$ where the supergravity dual description holds. From dimensional reduction of type II…
