We present non-extremal generalizations of N_f=2N_c supergravity duals obtained by adding flavor branes to the Chamseddine-Volkov-Maldacena-Nunez background and taking their backreaction into account. For a particular range of parameters we obtain a one parameter family of analytic black hole solutions with regular horizons. These solutions have a temperature that is always above the Hagedorn temperature of little string theory. We find that including flavor branes and their backreaction increases the minimum temperature of these systems from T = 1/(4π), for the background without flavor, to T = 1/(2π\sqrt{1 + epsilon}), epsilon << 1. We show that outside the range of validity of the analytic solutions presented here the backgrounds have naked singularities.
We construct a supergravity background corresponding to a backreacted D0/D4-brane system. The background is holographically dual to the Venecianno limit of the Berkoos-Douglas matrix model. It is known that the localized D0/D4 system is unstable when the D0-branes are within the D4-branes. To circumvent this difficulty we separate the D4s from the D0s, which are placed at the origin, and restore the symmetry of the combined system by distributing the D4-branes on a spherical shell around the D0-branes. The backreacted solution is first obtained perturbatively in N_f/N_c and displayed analytica…
We provide the backreaction of the T-fold doubly T-dual to a background with NSNS three-form flux on a three-torus. We extend the backreacted T-fold to include cases with a flux localized in one out of three directions. We analyze the resulting monodromy domain walls and vortices. In these backgrounds, we give an analysis of the action of T-duality on observables like charges and Wilson surfaces. We analyze arguments for the existence of regions in the configuration space of second quantized string theory that cannot be reduced to geometry. Finally, by allowing for space-dependent moduli, we f…
We investigate the perturbative (in $g_s N_{D8}$) backreaction of localized D8 branes in D4-D8 systems including in particular the Sakai Sugimoto model. We write down the explicit expressions of the backreacted metric, dilaton and RR form. We find that the backreaction remains small up to a radial value of $u \ll \ell_s/(g_s N_{D8})$, and that the background functions are smooth except at the D8 sources. In this perturbative window, the original embedding remains a solution to the equations of motion. Furthermore, the fluctuations around the original embedding, describing scalar mesons, do not…
We construct a novel supergravity background holographically dual to the flavoured N=1 Supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory. We consider flavours of different masses that produce spherical cavities with radii corresponding to the quark masses. The positive beta function blows at some large radial distance corresponding to the Landau pole of the theory. We explore the Wilson loop between two families of light and heavy quarks and observe a screening of the heavy light potential.
In this paper we discuss near-Hagedorn string thermodynamics starting from the explicit path integral derivation recently found by JHEP 0607 (2006) 031. Their result is extended and the validity is checked by comparing with some known exact results. We compare this approach with the first-quantized one-loop result from the low energy effective field theory and establish correction terms to the above result.
The effect of certain simple backgrounds on the Hagedorn temperature in theories of closed strings is examined. The background of interest are constant Neveu-Schwarz $B$-fields, a constant offset of the space-time metric and a compactified spatial dimension. We find that the Hagedorn temperature of string theory depends on the parameters of the background. We comment on an interesting non-extensive feature of the Hagedorn transition, including a subtlety with decoupling of closed strings in the NCOS limit of open string theory and on the large radius limit of discrete light-cone quantized clos…
We construct an M-theory background dual to the metastable state recently discussed by Klebanov and Pufu, which corresponds to placing a stack of anti-M2 branes at the tip of a warped Stenzel space. With this purpose we analytically solve for the linearized non-supersymmetric deformations around the warped Stenzel space, preserving the SO(5) symmetries of the supersymmetric background, and which interpolate between the IR and UV region. We identify the supergravity solution which corresponds to a stack of $\bar{N}$ backreacting anti-M2 branes by fixing all the 12 integration constants in terms…
The thermodynamics of type IIB superstring theory in the maximally supersymmetric plane wave background is studied. We compute the thermodynamic partition function for non-interacting strings exactly and the result differs slightly from previous computations. We clarify some of the issues related to the Hagedorn temperature in the limits of small and large constant RR 5-form. We study the thermodynamic behavior of strings in the case of $AdS_3 \times S^3 \times T^4$ geometries in the presence of NS-NS and RR 3-form backgrounds. We also comment on the relationship of string thermodynamics and t…
We construct the gravity dual of N=1 Non-Commutative SYM theory coupled to Nf smeared massless fundamental flavors. Our solution is analytic and non-perturbative. Near the origin the background reduces to the one corresponding to an ordinary SYM theory. At large radial distances, the dilaton diverges signaling the presence of a UV Landau pole. Considering a probe D3-brane we calculate the effective YM coupling and show that it is independent on the parameter of non-commutativity. We calculate the corresponding beta function and show that it remains positive at all energy scales.
We study the thermodynamical torus partition function of superstring on the near-extremal black NS5-brane background. The exact partition function has been computed with the helps of our previous works:[arXiv:1012.5721 [hep-th]], [arXiv:1109.3365 [hep-th]], and naturally decomposed into two parts. The first part is contributed from strings freely propagating in the asymptotic region, which are identified as the superstring gas at the Hawking temperature on the linear-dilaton background. The second part includes the contribution localized around the `tip of cigar', which characterizes the non-e…
We discuss the high temperature behaviour of IIB strings in the maximally symmetric plane wave background, and show that there is a Hagedorn temperature. We discuss the map between strings in the pp-wave background and the dual superconformal field theory in the thermal domain. The Hagedorn bound describes a curve in the R-charge chemical potential versus temperature phase diagram of the dual Yang-Mills theory and the theory manifestly exists on both sides. Using a recent observation of Brower, Lowe, and Tan, we update our earlier calculation to reflect that the pp-wave string exists on both s…
In this paper, we discuss several explicit examples of the results obtained in JHEP 1402 (2014) 127. We elaborate on the random walk picture in these spacetimes and how it is modified. Firstly we discuss the linear dilaton background. Then we analyze a previously studied toroidally compactified background where we determine the Hagedorn temperature and study the random walk picture. We continue with flat space orbifold models where we discuss boundary conditions for the thermal scalar. Finally, we study the general link between the quantum numbers in the fundamental domain and the strip and th…
It has been conjectured that string theory in a pp-wave background is dual to a sector of N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory. We study the Hagedorn transition for free strings in this background. We find that the free energy at the transition point is finite suggesting a confinement/deconfinement transition in the gauge theory. In the limit of vanishing mass parameter the free energy matches that of free strings on an 8-torus with momentum/winding chemical potential. The entropy in the microcanonical ensemble with fixed energy and fixed momentum/winding is computed in each case.
We discuss semi-classical string configurations at finite temperature. We find that those soliton solution in the background describing type IIA strings disappear or become divergent when we approach the Hagedorn temperature in the strong coupling regime. These findings together with a semi-classical analysis for the Hawking radiation let us to think that Hawking radiation is mainly driven by the existence of highly excited states. As by side, we check that beside the thermodynamical instability the system is dynamical unstable before reaching the Hagedorn temperature.
We construct numerically gravitational duals of theories deformed by localized Dirac delta sources for scalar operators both at zero and at finite temperature. We find that requiring that the backreacted geometry preserves the original scale invariance of the source uniquely determines the potential for the scalar field to be the one found in a certain Kaluza-Klein compactification of $11D$ supergravity. This result is obtained using an efficient perturbative expansion of the backreacted background at zero temperature and is confirmed by a direct numerical computation. Numerical solutions at f…
We calculate the thermal partition function in the canonical ensemble for type IIB superstrings in the plane wave background with constant null R-R 5-form. The Hagedorn temperature is found to be higher than the corresponding value for strings in flat space. In the limit corresponding to the weakly coupled field theory we find that the Hagedorn temperature is pushed to infinity. The key property of strings in the plane wave background under investigation on which our result relies is that the effective mass of the bosonic and fermionic coordinates in the light-cone gauge is proportional to the…
In this work we use the Matrix Model of Strings in order to extract some non-perturbative information on how the Hagedorn critical temperature arises from eleven-dimensional physics. We study the thermal behavior of M and Matrix theories on the compactification backgrounds that correspond to string models. We obtain some information that allows us to state that the Hagedorn temperature is not unique for all Matrix String models and we are also able to sketch how the $S$-duality transformation works in this framework.
This thesis concerns the study of high-temperature string theory on curved backgrounds, generalizing the notions of Hagedorn temperature and thermal scalar to general backgrounds. Chapter 2 contains a review on string thermodynamics in flat space, setting the stage. Chapters 3 and 4 contain the detailed study of the random walk picture in a general curved background. Chapters 5 and 6 then apply this to Rindler space, the near-horizon approximation of a generic (uncharged) black hole. Chapters 7 and 8 contain a study of the AdS3 and BTZ WZW models where we study the thermal spectrum and the res…
We discuss interacting, closed, bosonic and superstrings in thermal equilibrium at temperatures close to the Hagedorn temperature in flat space. We calculate S-matrix elements of the strings at the Hagedorn temperature and use them to construct a low-energy effective action for interacting strings near the Hagedorn temperature. We show, in particular, that the four-point amplitude of massless winding modes leads to a positive quartic interaction. Furthermore, the effective field theory has a generalized conformal structure, namely, it is conformally invariant when the temperature is assigned a…
The partition function of BFSS matrix model is studied for two different classical backgrounds upto 1-loop level. One of the backgrounds correspond to a membrane wrapped around a compact direction and another to a localized cluster of $D0$-branes. It is shown there exist phase transitions between these two configurations - but only in presence of an IR cut-off. The low temperature phase corresponds to a string (wrapped membrane) phase and so we call this the Hagedorn phase transition. While the presence of an IR cut-off seemingly is only required for perturbative analysis to be valid, the phys…
We consider early time cosmic evolution in string gas cosmology dominated by open strings attached to D-branes. After reviewing statistical properties of open strings in D-brane backgrounds, we use dilaton-gravity equations to determine the string frame fields. Although, there are distinctions in the Hagedorn regime thermodynamics and dilaton coupling as compared to closed strings, it seems difficult to avoid Jeans instability and assume thermal equilibrium simultaneously, which is already a known problem for closed strings. We also examine characteristics of a possible subsequent large radius…
We consider aspects of the role of stringy scales and Hagedorn temperatures in the correspondence between various field theories and AdS-type spaces. The boundary theory is set on a toroidal world-volume to enable small scales to appear in the supergravity backgrounds also for low field-theory temperatures. We find that thermodynamical considerations tend to favour background manifolds with no string-size characteristic scales. The gravitational dynamics censors the reliable exposure of Hagedorn physics on the supergravity side, and the system does not allow the study of the Hagedorn scale by …
We match the Hagedorn/deconfinement temperature of planar N=4 super Yang-Mills (SYM) on R x S^3 to the Hagedorn temperature of string theory on AdS_5 x S^5. The match is done in a near-critical region where both gauge theory and string theory are weakly coupled. On the gauge theory side we are taking a decoupling limit found in hep-th/0605234 in which the physics of planar N=4 SYM is given exactly by the ferromagnetic XXX_{1/2} Heisenberg spin chain. We find moreover a general relation between the Hagedorn/deconfinement temperature and the thermodynamics of the Heisenberg spin chain. On the st…
We construct backreacted D3/D7 supergravity backgrounds which are dual to four-dimensional N=1 and N=2 supersymmetric Yang-Mills at large N_c with flavor quarks in the fundamental representation of SU(N_c). We take into account the backreaction of D7-branes on either AdS(5) x S(5) or AdS(5) x T^{1,1}, or more generically on backgrounds where the space transverse to the D3-branes is Kaehler. The construction of the backreacted geometry splits into two stages. First we determine the modification of the six-dimensional space transverse to the D3 due to the D7, and then we compute the warp factor …
We match the Hagedorn/deconfinement temperature of planar N=4 super Yang-Mills (SYM) on R x S^3 to the Hagedorn temperature of string theory on AdS_5 x S^5. The match is done in a near-critical region where both gauge theory and string theory are weakly coupled. The near-critical region is near a point with zero temperature and critical chemical potential. On the gauge theory side we are taking a decoupling limit found in hep-th/0605234 in which the physics of planar N=4 SYM is given exactly by the ferromagnetic XXX_{1/2} Heisenberg spin chain. We find moreover a general relation between the H…
A certain sector of the matrix model for M-theory on a plane wave background has recently been shown to produce the transverse five-brane. We consider this theory at finite temperature. We find that, at a critical temperature it has a Gross-Witten phase transition which corresponds to deconfinement of the matrix model gauge theory. We interpret the phase transition as the Hagedorn transition of M-theory and of type II string theory in the five-brane background. We also show that there is no Hagedorn behaviour in the transverse membrane background case.
String theory axions are interesting candidates for fields whose potential might be controllable over super-Planckian field ranges and therefore as possible candidates for inflatons in large field inflation. Axion monodromy scenarios are setups where the axion shift symmetry is broken by some effect such that the axion can traverse a large number of periods potentially leading to super-Planckian excursions. We study such scenarios in type IIA string theory where the axion shift symmetry is broken by background fluxes. In particular we calculate the backreaction of the energy density induced by…
We study details of the approach to the Hagedorn temperature in string theory in various static spacetime backgrounds. We show that the partition function for a {\it single} string at finite temperature is the torus amplitude restricted to unit winding around Euclidean time. We use the worldsheet path integral to derive the statement that the the sum over random walks of the thermal scalar near the Hagedorn transition is precisely the image under a modular transformation of the sum over spatial configurations of a single highly excited string. We compute the radius of gyration of thermally exc…
In string theory, a thermal state is described by compactifying Euclidean time on a thermal circle $S^{1}_β$, of fixed circumference. However, this circumference is a dynamical field which could vary in space, therefore thermal equilibrium is not guaranteed. We discuss a thermal state of type II string theory near and above the Hagedorn temperature and show that the circumference of the thermal circle can indeed be fixed and stabilized in the presence of a uniform isotropic flux. We solve the equations of motion derived from an action that reproduces the tree-level string S-matrix. We find sol…
In the context of higher dimensional braneworld scenario, the stabilisation of extra dimensional modulus is an essential requirement for resolving the gauge hierarchy problem in the context of Standard Model of elementary particle Physics. For Randall-Sundrum (RS) warped extra dimensional model, Goldberger and Wise (GW) proposed a much useful mechanism to achieve this using a scalar field in the bulk spacetime ignoring the effects of backreaction of the scalar field on the background metric. In this article we examine the influence of the backreaction of the stabilising field on the stabilisat…
In search of extra dimensions in the ongoing LHC experiments, signatures of Randall-Sundrum (RS) lightest KK graviton have been one of the main focus in recent years. The recent data from the dilepton decay channel at the LHC has determined the experimental lower bound on the mass of the RS lightest Kaluza-Klein (KK) graviton for different choices of underlying parameters of the theory. In this work we explore the effects of the backreaction of the bulk scalar field, which is employed to stabilise the RS model, in modifying the couplings of the lightest KK graviton with the standard model (SM)…
We propose a string dual to the SU(Nc) N=4 SYM coupled to Nf massless fundamental flavors in an external magnetic field. The flavors are introduced by homogeneously smeared Nf D7-branes and the external magnetic field via a non-trivial Kalb-Ramond B-field. Our solution is perturbative in a parameter that counts the number of internal flavor loops. In the limit of vanishing B-field the background reduces to the supersymmetric one obtained in hep-th/0612118. We introduce an additional probe D7--brane and in the supersymmetric limit of vanishing B-field perform a holographic renormalization of it…
We consider closed type II and orientifold backgrounds where supersymmetry is spontaneously broken by asymmetric geometrical fluxes. We show that these can be used to describe thermal ensembles with chemical potentials associated to "gravito-magnetic" fluxes. The thermal free energy is computed at the one-loop string level, and it is shown to be free of the usual Hagedorn-like instabilities for a certain choice of the chemical potentials. In the closed string gravitational sector, as well as in the open string matter sector of the proposed orientifold construction, the free energy turns out to…
We discuss the thermal properties of string gases propagating in various D-brane backgrounds in the weak-coupling limit, and at temperatures close to the Hagedorn temperature. We determine, in the canonical ensemble, whether the Hagedorn temperature is limiting or non-limiting. This depends on the dimensionality of the D-brane, and the size of the compact dimensions. We find that in many cases the non-limiting behaviour manifest in the canonical ensemble is modified to a limiting behaviour in the microcanonical ensemble and show that, when there are different systems in thermal contact, the en…
We study string theory on $\mathbb{R}^d\times \mathbb{S}^1$. For applications to thermodynamics, the circumference of the $\mathbb{S}^1$ is the inverse temperature, $β$. We show that for $d=6$, the low energy effective field theory at the inverse Hagedorn temperature, $β=β_H$, has a one parameter family of normalizable spherically symmetric solutions that break the winding symmetry around the $\mathbb{S}^1$. The resulting backgrounds exhibit an enhanced symmetry, with the symmetry breaking pattern $SU(2)_L\times SU(2)_R\to SU(2)_{\rm diagonal}$. The effective field theory analysis of these bac…
We examine the static potential in the presence of flavors in the perturbative backreacted D4/D8 system from localized D8 branes, focusing in particular on the Sakai-Sugimoto model. For the case of long strings we find the flavor corrections to the static potential which are of exponential form. We then investigate shorter Wilson loops and express their energy analytically in terms of the lengths of two neighboring Wilson loops. Moreover, we find that the static force for all the cases in the backreacted background is reduced compared to one in the probe limit, as expected due to screening eff…
Recently, a one-parameter deformation of the Maldacena-Nunez dual of the N=1 SYM theory was constructed in hep-th/0505100. According to the Lunin-Maldacena conjecture, the background is dual to pure N=1 SYM in the IR coupled to a KK sector whose dynamics is altered by a dipole deformation that is proportional to the deformation parameter gamma. Thus, the deformation serves to identify the aspects of the gravity backgrounds that bear the effects of the KK sector, hence non-universal in the dual gauge theory. We make this idea concrete by studying a Penrose limit of the deformed MN theory. We ob…
We study the backreaction of smeared and localised anti M2-branes placed at the tip of the CGLP background. To this end we derive a Smarr relation for backreacted antibranes at zero and finite temperature. For extremal antibranes we show that if smeared they cannot have regular horizons, whereas localised M2-branes can potentially be regular when polarised into M5-branes, in agreement with the probe result of Klebanov and Pufu. We further discuss antibranes at finite temperature and argue that localised antibrane solutions with regular horizons are not excluded.
We find a decoupling limit of planar N=4 super Yang-Mills (SYM) on R x S^3 in which it becomes equivalent to the ferromagnetic XXX_{1/2} Heisenberg spin chain in an external magnetic field. The decoupling limit generalizes the one found in hep-th/0605234 corresponding to the case with zero magnetic field. The presence of the magnetic field is seen to break the degeneracy of the vacuum sector and it has a non-trivial effect on the low energy spectrum. We find a general connection between the Hagedorn temperature of planar N=4 SYM on R x S^3 in the decoupling limit and the thermodynamics of the …
We investigate the thermodynamic properties of D-brane-anti-D-brane pairs and non-BPS D-branes on the basis of boundary string field theory. We calculate the finite temperature effective potential of N D-brane-anti-D-brane pairs in a non-compact background and in a toroidal background. In the non-compact background case, a phase transition occurs slightly below the Hagedorn temperature, and the D9-anti-D9 pairs become stable. Moreover, the total energy at the critical temperature is a decreasing function of N as long as the 't Hooft coupling is very small. This leads to the conclusion that a l…
We study the holographic dual of flavors in a Chern-Simons matter theory at non-zero temperature, realized as D6-branes in the type IIA black hole dual in the ABJM background geometry. We consider both massive and massless flavors. The former are treated in the quenched approximation, whereas the massless ones are considered as dynamical objects and their backreaction on the geometry is included in the black hole background. We compute the holographically renormalized action of the probe by imposing several physical conditions. In the limit of massless flavors the free energy and entropy of th…
We study (non-)integrability and the presence of chaos in gravity dual backgrounds of strongly coupled gauge theories with unquenched flavor, specifically of the four-dimensional N=2 super Yang-Mills theory and the three-dimensional ABJM theory. By examining string motion on the geometries corresponding to backreacted D3/D7 and D2/D6 systems, we show that integrable theories with quenched flavor become non-integrable when the virtual quark loops are taken into account. For the string solutions in the backreacted D3/D7 system, we compute the leading Lyapunov exponent which turns out to saturate…
In the modified measure formulation the string tension appear as an additional dynamical degree of freedom and these tensions are not universal, but rather each string generates its own tension, which can have a different value for each string. We consider new background field that can couple to these strings, the tension scalar is capable of changing locally along the world sheet the value of the tension of the extended object. When many types of strings probing the same region of space are considered this tension scalar is constrained by the requirement of quantum conformal invariance. For t…
We calculate the thermal partition functions of open strings on the S-brane backgrounds (the bouncing or rolling tachyon backgrounds) both in the bosonic and superstring cases. According to hep-th/0302146, we consider the discretized temperatures compatible with the pure imaginary periodicity of tachyon profiles. The ``effective Hagedorn divergence'' is shown to appear no matter how low temperature is chosen (including zero-temperature). This feature is likely to be consistent with the large rate of open string pair production discussed in hep-th/0209090 and also emission of closed string mass…
In order to study the thermodynamic properties of brane-antibrane systems in the toroidal background, we compute the finite temperature effective potential of tachyon T in this system on the basis of boundary string field theory. We first consider the case that all the radii of the target space torus are about the string scale. If the Dp-antiDp pair is extended in all the non-compact directions, the sign of the coefficient of |T|^2 term of the potential changes slightly below the Hagedorn temperature. This means that a phase transition occurs near the Hagedorn temperature. On the other hand, i…
String theory in Euclidean flat space with a spacelike linear dilaton contains a D1-brane which looks like a semi-infinite hairpin. In addition to its curved shape, this ``hairpin brane'' has a condensate of the open string tachyon stretched between its two sides. The tachyon smears the brane and shifts the location of its tip. The Minkowski continuation of the hairpin brane describes a D0-brane freely falling in a linear dilaton background. Effects that in Euclidean space are attributed to the tachyon condensate, give rise in the Minkowski case to a stringy smearing of the trajectory of the D…
We study the addition of flavor to the gravity dual of N=4 three-dimensional gauge theories obtained by wrapping $N_c$ D4-branes on a two-cycle of a non-compact Calabi-Yau two-fold. In this setup the flavor is introduced by adding another set of D4-branes that are extended along the non-compact directions of the Calabi-Yau which are normal to the cycle which the color branes wrap. The analysis is performed both in the quenched and unquenched approximations. In this latter case we compute the backreacted metric and we show that it reproduces the running of the gauge coupling. The meson spectrum…
We construct cohomogeneity-three, finite temperature stationary black brane solutions dual to a field theory exhibiting checkerboard order. The checkerboards form a backreacted part of the bulk solution, and are obtained numerically from the coupled Einstein-Maxwell-scalar PDE system. They arise spontaneously and without the inclusion of an explicit lattice. The phase exhibits both charge and global U(1)-current modulation, which are periodic in two spatial directions. The current circulates within each checkerboard plaquette. We explore the competition with striped phases, finding first-order…
The lengthy discussion and derivations given in this paper have been corrected, and completed with additional results and greater simplicity. We show that the high temperature limits of the heterotic E8xE8 and Spin(32)/Z2 strings and their Type I A/B superstring duals are finite and convergent. The Hagedorn growth of the degeneracies in the string mass level expansion is suppressed by an exponential linear in the mass level number for both heterotic strings, and suppressed by the exponential of the negative square root of the mass level number for the Type IB superstring. However, in the massl…
We employ gauge-gravity duality to study the backreaction effect of 4-dimensional large-$N$ quantum field theories on constant-curvature backgrounds, and in particular de Sitter space-time. The field theories considered are holographic QFTs, dual to RG flows between UV and IR CFTs. We compute the holographic QFT contribution to the gravitational effective action for 4d Einstein manifold backgrounds. We find that for a given value of the cosmological constant $λ$, there generically exist two backreacted constant-curvature solutions, as long as $λ< λ_{\textrm{max}} \sim M_p^2 / N^2$, otherwise n…
We consider the thermodynamics of the near-extremal NS5-brane in type IIA string theory. The central tool we use is to map phases of six-dimensional Kaluza-Klein black holes to phases of near-extremal M5-branes with a transverse circle in eleven-dimensional supergravity. By S-duality these phases correspond to phases of the near-extremal type IIA NS5-brane. One of our main results is that in the canonical ensemble the usual near-extremal NS5-brane background, dual to a uniformly smeared near-extremal M5-brane, is subdominant to a new background of near-extremal M5-branes localized on the trans…
