We investigate a class of near-extremal solutions of Einstein-Maxwell-scalar theory with electric charge and power law scaling, dual to charged IR phases of relativistic field theories at low temperature. These are exact solutions of theories with domain wall vacua; hence, we use nonconformal holography to relate the bulk and boundary theories. We numerically construct a global interpolating solution between the IR charged solutions and the UV domain wall vacua for arbitrary physical choices of Lagrangian parameters. By passing to a conformal frame in which the domain wall metric becomes that of AdS, we uncover a generalized scale invariance of the IR scaling solution, indicating a connection to the physics of Lifshitz fixed points. Finally, guided by effective field theoretic principles and the physics of nonconformal D-branes, we argue for the applicability of domain wall holography even in theories with AdS critical points, namely those theories for which a scalar potential is dominated by a single exponential term over a large range.
Massive QCD at $θ=π$ breaks CP spontaneously and admits domain walls whose dynamics and phases depend on the number of flavors and their masses. We discuss these issues within the Witten-Sakai-Sugimoto model of holographic QCD. Besides showing that this model reproduces all QCD expectations, we address two interesting claims in the literature. The first is about the possibility that the QCD domain-wall theory is fully captured by three-dimensional physics, only. The second regards the existence of quantum phases in certain Chern-Simons theories coupled to fundamental matter. Both claims are su…
We study conformal field theories in two dimensions separated by domain walls, which preserve at least one Virasoro algebra. We develop tools to study such domain walls, extending and clarifying the concept of `folding' discussed in the condensed-matter literature. We analyze the conditions for unbroken supersymmetry, and discuss the holographic duals in AdS3 when they exist. One of the interesting observables is the Casimir energy between a wall and an anti-wall. When these separate free scalar field theories with different target-space radii, the Casimir energy is given by the dilogarithm fu…
The cutoff version of the AdS/CFT correspondence states that the Randall Sundrum scenario is dual to a Conformal Field Theory (CFT) coupled to gravity in four dimensions. The gravitational field produced by relativistic domain walls can be exactly solved in both sides of the correspondence, and thus provides one further check of it. We show in the two sides that for the most symmetric case, the wall motion does not lead to particle production of the CFT fields. Still, there are nontrivial effects. Due to the trace anomaly, the CFT effectively renormalizes the domain wall tension. On the five d…
The holographic correspondence between 2d, N=2 quantum field theories and classical 4d, N=2 supergravity coupled to hypermultiplet matter is proposed. The geometrical constraints on the target space of the 4d, N=2 non-linear sigma-models in N=2 supergravity background are interpreted as the exact renormalization group flow equations in two dimensions. Our geometrical description of the renormalization flow is manifestly covariant under general reparametrization of the 2d coupling constants. An explicit exact solution to the 2d renormalization flow, based on its dual holographic description in …
We consider a class of domain-wall black hole solutions in the dilaton gravity with a Liouville-type dilaton potential. Using the surface counterterm approach we calculate the stress-energy tensor of quantum field theory (QFT) corresponding to the domain-wall black hole in the domain-wall/QFT correspondence. A brane universe is investigated in the domain-wall black hole background. When the tension term of the brane is equal to the surface counterterm, we find that the equation of motion of the brane can be mapped to the standard form of FRW equations, but with a varying gravitational constant…
Cosmological phase transitions proceed via the nucleation of bubbles that subsequently expand and collide. The resulting gravitational wave spectrum depends crucially on the bubble wall velocity. Microscopic calculations of this velocity are challenging even in weakly coupled theories. We use holography to compute the wall velocity from first principles in a strongly coupled, non-Abelian, four-dimensional gauge theory. The wall velocity is determined dynamically in terms of the nucleation temperature. We find an approximately linear relation between the velocity and the ratio $Δ\mathcal{P}/\ma…
We propose a holographic dual for (pseudo-)conformal cosmological scenario, with a scalar field that forms a moving domain wall in adS_5. The domain wall separates two vacua with unequal energy densities. Unlike in the existing construction, the 5d solution is regular in the relevant space-time domain.
We present a holographic theory in AdS_4 whose zero temperature ground state develops a crystal structure, spontaneously breaking translational symmetry. The crystal is induced by a background magnetic field, but requires no chemical potential. This lattice arises from the existence of 't Hooft-Polyakov monopole solitons in the bulk which condense to form a classical object known as a monopole wall. In the infra-red, the magnetic field is screened and there is an emergent SU(2) global symmetry.
We describe a correspondence between domain wall solutions of Einstein gravity with a single scalar field and self-interaction potential. The correspondence we call 'conformal scale factor inversion (CSFI)' is a map comprising the inversion of the scale factor in conformal coordinates, and a transformation of the field and its potential which preserves the form of the Einstein equations for static and isotropic domain walls. By construction, CSFI maps the asymptotic AdS boundary to the vicinity of a naked singularity in a theory with a special Liouville (exponential) scalar field potential; it…
We analyze diffeomorphism invariance in inflationary spacetimes regulated by a boundary at late time. We present the action for quadratic fluctuations in the presence of a boundary, and verify that it is gauge invariant precisely when the correct local counterterms are included. The scaling behavior of bulk correlation functions at the boundary is determined by Callan-Symanzik equations which predict scaling violations in agreement with the standard inflationary predictions for spectral indices of the CMB.
We obtain relaxation times for field theories with Lifshitz scaling and with holographic duals Einstein-Maxwell-Dilaton gravity theories. This is done by computing quasinormal modes of a bulk scalar field in the presence of Lifshitz black branes. We determine the relation between relaxation time and dynamical exponent z, for various values of boundary dimension d and operator scaling dimension. It is found that for d>z+1, at zero momenta, the modes are non-overdamped, whereas for d<=z+1 the system is always overdamped. For d=z+1 and zero momenta, we present analytical results.
The Kibble-Zurek (KZ) mechanism describes the generations of topological defects when a system undergoes a second-order phase transition via quenches. We study the holographic KZ scaling using holographic superconductors. The scaling can be understood analytically from a scaling analysis of the bulk action. The argument is reminiscent of the scaling analysis of the mean-field theory but is more subtle and is not entirely obvious. This is because the scaling is not the one of the original bulk theory but is an emergent one that appears only at the critical point. The analysis is also useful to …
We review the construction of holography for cosmologies with an emphasis on asymptotically de Sitter cosmologies. We do this by composition of the AdS/CFT correspondence and domain-wall/cosmology (DW/C) correspondence with the novel added benefit of keeping track of the DW/C marker $η$. This allows us to build explicitly the holographic dual of the DW/C correspondence. We then test this framework on a toy model: the GPPZ flow. We find the scalar one-point function for this flow to be invariant under the domain-wall/cosmology correspondence. Moreover, our construction seems to agree with previ…
This thesis is devoted to studying two important aspects of braneworld physics: their cosmology and their holography. We examine the Einstein equations induced on a general $(n-2)$-brane of arbitrary tension, embedded in some $n$-dimensional bulk. The brane energy-momentum tensor enters these equations both linearly and quadratically. From the point of view of a homogeneous and isotropic brane we see quadratic deviations from the FRW equations of the standard cosmology. There is also a contribution from a bulk Weyl tensor. We study this in detail when the bulk is AdS-Schwarzschild or Reissner-…
We study certain features of strongly coupled theories with hyperscaling violation by making use of their gravitational duals. We will consider models with an anisotropic scaling in time or in one of spatial directions. In particular for the case where the anisotropic scaling is along a spatial direction we will compute the holographic entanglement entropy and show that for specific values of the parameters it exhibits a logarithmic violation of the area law. We will also probe the backgrounds by different closed and open strings which in turn can be used to read, for example, effective potent…
We construct a Josephson junction in non-relativistic case with a Lifshitz geometry as the dual gravity. We investigate the effect of the Lifshitz scaling in comparison with its relativistic counterpart. The standard sinusoidal relation between the current and the phase difference is found for various Lifshitz scalings characterised by the dynamical critical exponent. We also find the exponential decreasing relation between the condensate of the scalar operator within the barrier at zero current and the width of the weak link, as well as the relation between the critical current and the width.…
We study a four-dimensional domain wall in twisted M-theory. The domain wall is engineered by intersecting D6 branes in the type IIA frame. We identify the classical algebra of operators on the domain wall in terms of a higher vertex operator algebra, which describes the holomorphic subsector of a 4d $\mathcal{N}=1$ supersymmetric field theory, and compute the associated mode algebra. We conjecture that the quantum deformation of the classical algebra is isomorphic to the bulk algebra of operators from which we establish twisted holography of the domain wall.
We construct a gravitational dual of the pseudo-conformal universe, a proposed alternative to inflation in which a conformal field theory in nearly flat space develops a time dependent vacuum expectation value. Constructing this dual amounts to finding five-dimensional domain-wall spacetimes with anti-de Sitter asymptotics, for which the wall has the symmetries of four-dimensional de Sitter space. This holographically realizes the characteristic symmetry breaking pattern O(2,4) to O(1,4) of the pseudo-conformal universe. We present an explicit example with a massless scalar field, using hologr…
We propose a quasi-local stress tensor for the four-dimensional asymptotically flat Robinson-Trautman geometries by taking the flat-space limit from the corresponding asymptotically AdS solutions. This stress tensor results in the correct charges of the generators of BMS symmetry if we define conformal infinity by an anisotropic scaling of the metric components. Using flat-space holography this stress tensor is related to expectation values of the stress tensor in a dual field theory called BMS-invariant field theory (BMSFT). We also calculate the two and three point functions of the proposed …
We analytically obtain a new charged Lifshtitz solution by adding a non-relativistic Maxwell field in Horava-Lifshitz gravity. The black hole exhibits an anisotropic scaling between space and time (Lifshitz scaling) in the UV limit, while in the IR limit, the Lorentz invariance is recovered. We introduce the probed Lorentz-violation fermions into the background and holographically investigate the spectral properties of the dual fermionic operator. The Lorentz-violation of fermions will enhance the peak and corresponds larger fermi momentum, which compensates the non-relativistic bulk effect of…
We study three-dimensional superconformal field theories on wrapped M5-branes. Applying the gauge/gravity duality and the recently proposed 3d-3d relation, we deduce quantitative predictions for the perturbative free energy of a Chern-Simons theory on hyperbolic 3-space. Remarkably, the perturbative expansion is expected to terminate at two-loops in the large N limit. We check the correspondence numerically in a number of examples, and confirm the N^3 scaling with precise coefficients.
Within an extended soft wall model, we study the temperature dependence of the lowest vector meson states. Scales are adjusted by using as input the $ρ$ meson mass in vacuum and the velocity of sound from lattice QCD which displays a minimum at $T_{\rm c}$. The melting of the $ρ$ meson occurs at temperatures $\mathcal{O}(T_{\rm c})$.
We propose a covariant geometrical expression for the c-function for theories which admit dual gravitational descriptions. We state a c-theorem with respect to this quantity and prove it. We apply the expression to a class of geometries, from domain walls in gauged supergravities, to extremal and near extremal Dp branes, and the AdS Schwarzschild black hole. In all cases, we find agreement with expectations.
The AdS/CFT correspondence is a realization of the holographic principle in the context of string theory. It is a map between a quantum field theory and a string theory living in one or more extra dimensions. Holography provides new tools to study strongly-coupled quantum field theories. It has important applications in quantum chromodynamics (QCD) and condensed matter (CM) systems, which are usually complicated and strongly coupled. Quantum critical CM theories have scaling symmetries and can be connected to higher-dimensional scale invariant space-times. The Effective Holographic Theory para…
We study phase transitions driven by fermionic double-trace deformations in gauge-gravity duality. Both the strength of the double trace deformation and the infrared conformal dimension/self-energy scaling of the quasiparticle can be used to decrease the critical temperature to zero, leading to a line of quantum critical points. The self-energy scaling is controlled indirectly through an applied magnetic field and the quantum phase transition naturally involves the condensation of a fermion bilinear which models the spin density wave in an antiferromagnetic state. The nature of the quantum cri…
In this work, we examine how charge is transported in a theory where momentum is relaxed by spatially dependent, massless scalars. We analyze the possible IR phases in terms of various scaling exponents and the (ir)relevance of operators in the IR effective holographic theory with a dilaton. We compute the (finite) resistivity and encounter broad families of (in)coherent metals and insulators, characterized by universal scaling behaviour. The optical conductivity at zero temperature and low frequencies exhibits power tails which can violate scaling symmetries, due to the running of the dilaton…
We analyze the effects of noncommutativity in conformal quantum mechanics (CQM) using the $κ$-deformed space-time as a prototype. Upto the first order in the deformation parameter, the symmetry structure of the CQM algebra is preserved but the coupling in a canonical model of the CQM gets deformed. We show that the boundary conditions that ensure a unitary time evolution in the noncommutative CQM can break the scale invariance, leading to a quantum mechanical scaling anomaly. We calculate the scaling dimensions of the two and three point functions in the noncommutative CQM which are shown to b…
Motivated by the puzzles in understanding how Black Holes evaporate into a strongly coupled Conformal Field Theory, we study particle creation by an accelerating mirror. We model the mirror as a gravitating Domain Wall and consider a CFT coupled to it through gravity, in asymptotically Anti de Sitter space. This problem (backreaction included) can be solved exactly at one loop. At strong coupling, this is dual to a Domain Wall localized on the brane in the Karch-Randall model, which can be fully solved as well. Hence, in this case one can see how the particle production is affected by A) stron…
Taking as a probe an SU(2) gauge field with Yang-Mills action in a 3+1 dimensional Lifshitz black hole background, we use the gauge/gravity correspondence to discuss finite temperature effects in the dual theory defined on the boundary. In order to test the dependence of results on the anisotropic scaling exponent z we consider two analytical black hole solutions with z=2 and z=4. Apart from solving the equations of motion in the bulk using a numerical approach, we also apply an analytical approximation allowing the determination of the phase transition character, the critical exponent and the…
Motivated by the AdS/CFT correspondence, we use Monte Carlo simulation to investigate the Ising model formulated on tessellations of the two-dimensional hyperbolic disk. We focus in particular on the behavior of boundary-boundary correlators, which exhibit power-law scaling both below and above the bulk critical temperature indicating scale invariance of the boundary theory at any temperature. This conclusion is strengthened by a finite-size scaling analysis of the boundary susceptibility which yields a scaling exponent consistent with the scaling dimension extracted from the boundary correlat…
We use holography to compute the large-$N$ effective field theory along the moduli space of vacua of an infinite class of three-dimensional $\mathcal{N}=2$ SCFTs admitting a dual M-theory description. We focus in particular on toric models and show how the spectrum of large $R$-charge SCFT chiral scalar operators corresponds to a set of explicit semiclassical solutions of our effective field theory, which describe bound states of backreacting giant gravitons and baryonic-like M5-branes. Our semiclassical description allows for a direct computation of the scaling dimensions of these operators a…
We investigate holography for asymptotically Schrödinger spacetimes, using a frame formalism based on the anisotropic scaling symmetry. We build on our previous work on $z<2$ to propose a dictionary for $z=2$. For $z=2$, the scaling symmetry does not act on the additional null direction, which implies that in our dictionary it does not correspond to one of the field theory directions. This is significantly different from previous analyses based on viewing Schrödinger as a deformation of AdS. We study this dictionary in the linearised theory and in an asymptotic expansion. We show that a soluti…
We study the holographic field theory dual of a probe SU(2) Yang-Mills field in a background $(4+1)$-dimensional asymptotically Anti-de Sitter space. We find a new ground state when a magnetic component of the gauge field is larger than a critical value. The ground state forms a triangular Abrikosov lattice in the spatial directions perpendicular to the magnetic field. The lattice is composed of superconducting vortices induced by the condensation of a charged vector operator. We perform this calculation both at finite temperature and at zero temperature with a hard wall cutoff dual to a confi…
We construct the gravity background which describes the dual field theory with aging invariance. We choose the decay modes of the bulk scalar field in the internal spectator direction to obtain the dissipative behavior of the boundary correlation functions of the dual scalar fields. In particular, the two-time correlation function at zero temperature has the characteristic features of the aging system: power law decay, broken time translation and dynamical scaling. We also construct the black hole backgrounds with asymptotic aging invariance. We extensively study characteristic behavior of the…
We study four dimensional gravity with a negative cosmological constant deformed by the Nieh-Yan torsional topological invariant with a spacetime-dependent coefficient. We find an exact solution of the Euclidean system, which we call the torsion vortex, having two asymptotic AdS4 regimes supported by a pseudoscalar with a kink profile. We propose that the torsion vortex is the holographic dual of a three dimensional system that exhibits distinct parity breaking vacua. The torsion vortex represents a (holographic) transition between these distinct vacua. We expect that from the boundary point o…
Naive dimensional analysis (NDA) is a widely used ansatz to estimate coupling constants among composite states emerging from dynamics of a strongly coupled gauge theory. However, the validity of NDA is still unclear because of the difficulty in calculating these quantities in strongly coupled theories. We examine the NDA ansatz using gauge/string duality, by estimating glueball coupling constants from gravitational description. The NDA scaling rule for coupling constants of some types of glueballs is verified and extended by both generic estimation and numerical calculations. The scaling rule …
We discuss holography for Schrodinger solutions of both topologically massive gravity in three dimensions and massive vector theories in (d+1) dimensions. In both cases the dual field theory can be viewed as a d-dimensional conformal field theory (two dimensional in the case of TMG) deformed by certain operators that respect the Schrodinger symmetry. These operators are irrelevant from the viewpoint of the relativistic conformal group but they are exactly marginal with respect to the non-relativistic conformal group. The spectrum of linear fluctuations around the background solutions correspon…
We compute boundary correlation functions for scalar fields on tessellations of two- and three-dimensional hyperbolic geometries. We present evidence that the continuum relation between the scalar bulk mass and the scaling dimension associated with boundary-to-boundary correlation functions survives the truncation of approximating the continuum hyperbolic space with a lattice.
Supersymmetric domain-wall spacetimes that lift to Ricci-flat solutions of M-theory admit generalized Heisenberg (2-step nilpotent) isometry groups. These metrics may be obtained from known cohomogeneity one metrics of special holonomy by taking a "Heisenberg limit", based on an Inönü-Wigner contraction of the isometry group. Associated with each such metric is an Einstein metric with negative cosmological constant on a solvable group manifold. We discuss the relevance of our metrics to the resolution of singularities in domain-wall spacetimes and some applications to holography. The extremely…
Measuring chaos of QCD-like theories is a challenge for formulating a novel characterization of quantum gauge theories. We define a chaos phase diagram of QCD allowing us to locate chaos in the parameter space of energy of homogeneous meson condensates and the QCD parameters such as pion/quark mass. We draw the chaos phase diagrams obtained in two ways: first, by using a linear sigma model, varying parameters of the potential, and second, by using the D4/D6 holographic QCD, varying the number of colors $N_c$ and the 't Hooft coupling constant $λ$. A scaling law drastically simplifies our analy…
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur（坎普尔印度理工学院）；University of Victoria（维多利亚大学）；Chennai Mathematical Institute（金奈数学研究所）；Homi Bhabha National Institute（霍米·巴巴国立研究所）；The Institute of Mathematical Sciences（数学科学研究所）
Holography for UV-incomplete gauge theories is important but poorly understood. A paradigmatic example is $d=4$, $\mathcal{N}=4$ super Yang-Mills coupled to $N_f$ quark flavors, which possesses a Landau pole at a UV scale $Λ_{LP}$. The dual gravity solution exhibits a UV singularity at a finite proper distance along the holographic direction. Despite this, holographic renormalization can be fully implemented via analytic continuation to an AdS solution. The presence of a UV cut-off manifests itself in several interesting ways. At energies $E \ll Λ_{LP}$ no pathologies appear, as expected from …
We obtain a Bekenstein entropy bound for the charged objects in arbitrary dimensions ($D\ge 4$) using the D-bound recently proposed by Bousso. With the help of thermodynamics of CFTs corresponding to AdS Reissner-Norström (RN) black holes, we discuss the relation between the Bekenstein and Bekenstein-Verlinde bounds. In particular we propose a Bekenstein-Verlinde-like bound for the charged systems. In the Einstein-Maxwell theory with a negative cosmological constant, we discuss the brane cosmology with positive tension using the Binetruy-Deffayet-Langlois approach. The resulting Friedman-Rober…
We study pairing induced superconductivity in large $N$ strongly coupled systems at finite density using holography. In the weakly coupled dual gravitational theory the mechanism is conventional BCS theory. An IR hard wall cut-off is included to ensure that we can controllably address the dynamics of a single confined Fermi surface. We address in detail the interplay between the scalar order parameter field and fermion pairing. Adding an explicitly dynamical scalar operator with the same quantum numbers as the fermion-pair, the theory experiences a BCS/BEC crossover controlled by the relative …
Spectra of pions, which are known as the pseudo-Goldstone bosons of spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking, as well as their relationship with chiral phase transition and pion superfluidity phase transition, have been investigated in the framework of soft-wall AdS/QCD. In chiral limit, it is proved both numerically and analytically that pions are massless Goldstone bosons even at finite temperature, which was usually considered as an assumption in soft-wall models. Above $T_c$, at which chiral condensate $\langle \bar{q}q\rangle$ vanishes, the spectra of pions and scalar mesons merge together, s…
We interpret cosmological evolution holographically as a renormalisation group flow in a dual Euclidean field theory, as suggested by the conjectured dS/CFT correspondence. Inflation is described by perturbing around the infra-red fixed point of the dual field theory. The spectrum of the cosmic microwave background radiation is determined in terms of scaling violations in the field theory. The dark energy allows similar, albeit less predictive, considerations. We discuss the cosmological fine-tuning problems from the holographic perspective.
We initiate a holographic model building approach to `strange metallic' phenomenology. Our model couples a neutral Lifshitz-invariant quantum critical theory, dual to a bulk gravitational background, to a finite density of gapped probe charge carriers, dually described by D-branes. In the physical regime of temperature much lower than the charge density and gap, we exhibit anomalous scalings of the temperature and frequency dependent conductivity. Choosing the dynamical critical exponent $z$ appropriately we can match the non-Fermi liquid scalings, such as linear resistivity, observed in stran…
A class of invariant states under de Sitter isometries is constructed in d-dimensional Conformal Field Theories from the universal sector of AdS/CFT dualities. These states extend the Mottola-Allen $α$-vacua to theories containing scalar primary operators of arbitrary scaling dimensions, and are proven to explicitly break conformal symmetry. Two-point correlators in these states are shown to satisfy a generalized spectral decomposition in terms of free massive propagators. It is also pointed out that the spectral decomposition of generic Euclidean correlators is known in the mathematics litera…
Using the gauge-gravity duality, we argue that for a certain class of out-of-equilibrium steady-state systems in contact with a thermal background at a given temperature, the macroscopic physics can be captured by an effective thermodynamic description. The steady-state is obtained by applying a constant electric field that results in a stationary current flow. Within holography, we consider generic probe systems where an open string equivalence principle and an open string metric govern the effective thermodynamics. This description comes equipped with an effective temperature, which is large…
