We propose a holographic computation of the $2\rightarrow 2$ meson scattering in a curved string background, dual to a QCD-like theory. We recover the Veneziano amplitude and compute a perturbative correction due to the background curvature. The result implies a small deviation from a linear trajectory, which is a requirement of the UV regime of QCD.
QCD at finite, flavor independent quark mass is analyzed by using bottom-up holography in the Veneziano limit, where the backreaction of quarks to the gluon dynamics is fully included. The dependence on the quark mass of observables such as the bound state masses, the chiral condensate, the S-parameter, and the critical temperatures is studied. Many of the results are argued to be universal, i.e., independent of the details of the holographic model, and compared to explicit computations in the V-QCD models. The effect of adding four-fermion operators in QCD is also discussed.
We investigate the phase diagram of QCD-like gauge theories at strong coupling at finite magnetic field $B$, temperature $T$ and baryon chemical potential $μ$ using the improved holographic QCD model including the full backreaction of the quarks in the plasma. In addition to the phase diagram we study the behavior of the quark condensate as a function of $T$, $B$ and $μ$ and discuss the fate of (inverse) magnetic catalysis at finite $μ$. In particular we observe that inverse magnetic catalysis exists only for small values of the baryon chemical potential. The speed of sound in this holographic…
We study strongly-coupled, approximately scale-invariant gauge theories, which develop a mass gap in the infrared. We argue that a large number of fermion flavours is most suitable to provide an ultraviolet completion for the composite Higgs scenario. The holographic approach allows to describe the qualitative features of the non-perturbative dynamics in the Veneziano limit. We introduce new bottom-up holographic models, which incorporate the backreaction of flavour on the geometry, and show that this can correlate the mass gap to the scale of flavour-symmetry breaking. We compute the mass spe…
Solving the properties of dense QCD matter is an extremely challenging problem because standard theoretical tools do not work at intermediate densities. The gauge/gravity duality may help to provide answers in this region. I give a brief review of recent progress in this field, focusing on the V-QCD model, which is one of the most sophisticated holographic models of QCD. I discuss predictions for the phase diagram, the equation of state, and properties of baryons. I apply these results to analyze the properties of neutron stars and to quark matter production in neutron star mergers.
We construct a class of bottom-up holographic models with physics comparable to the one expected from QCD in the Veneziano limit of large N_f and N_c with fixed x = N_f/N_c. The models capture the holographic dynamics of the dilaton (dual to the YM coupling) and a tachyon (dual to the chiral condensate), and are parametrized by the real parameter x, which can take values within the range 0 <= x < 11/2. We analyze the saddle point solutions, and draw the phase diagram at zero temperature and density. The backreaction of flavor on the glue is fully included. We find the conformal window for x >=…
We initiate the study of Regge theory in a bottom-up holographic model for QCD in the Veneziano limit, where the backreaction of the quarks to the gluon dynamics is included. We determine the parameters of the model by carrying out a precise fit to the meson spectrum in QCD. The spectrum for spin-one and pseudoscalar mesons is well reproduced. We then generalise the model to incluce higher spin fields in the bulk trajectories dual to the Pomeron and meson Regge trajectories at the boundary. With this setting, we fit the masses of the mesons with spins $J=2$, $3$, and $4$,as well as the experim…
We revisit the $U(1)_A$ anomaly in the holographic model of low-energy QCD by Witten, Sakai, and Sugimoto, presenting a new and direct derivation of the Witten-Veneziano mechanism for generating the mass of the $η'$ through an anomalous mixing of the Ramond-Ramond $C_1$ field with the singlet component of the pseudoscalar mesons. The latter turns out to have a kinetic mixing with the normalizable modes of the $C_1$ field representing pseudoscalar glueballs, yielding additional vertices for their production and their decay that dominate over those of the unmixed case considered previously in th…
We continue our study of strongly-coupled, approximately scale-invariant gauge theories with a large number of flavours, which provide a suitable ultraviolet completion of the composite-Higgs scenario. We identify the requisite operators to realise partial compositeness of the Standard-Model fermions. In order to compute the spectrum of composite fermionic states, we extend the bottom-up holographic models, which we previously introduced to capture the main features of the non-perturbative dynamics in the Veneziano limit, by adding fermion fields in the bulk. We identify regions in parameter s…
We consider four scalar mesons scattering in large-Nc QCD. Using the worldline formalism we show that the scattering amplitude can be written as a formal sum over Wilson loops. The AdS/CFT correspondence maps this sum into a sum over string worldsheets in a confining background. We then argue that for well separated mesons the sum is dominated by flat space configurations. Under additional assumptions about the dual string path integral we obtain the Veneziano amplitude.
We study the dependence of the chiral condensate on external magnetic field in the context of holographic QCD at large number of flavors. We consider a holographic QCD model where the flavor degrees of freedom fully backreact on the color dynamics. Perturbative QCD calculations have shown that $B$ acts constructively on the chiral condensate, a phenomenon called "magnetic catalysis". In contrast, recent lattice calculations show that, depending on the number of flavors and temperature, the magnetic field may also act destructively, which is called "inverse magnetic catalysis". Here we show tha…
Holographic models in the T=0 universality class of QCD in the limit of large number N_c of colors and N_f massless fermion flavors, but constant ratio x_f=N_f/N_c, are analyzed at finite temperature. The models contain a 5-dimensional metric and two scalars, a dilaton sourcing TrF^2 and a tachyon dual to \bar qq. The phase structure on the T,x_f plane is computed and various 1st order, 2nd order transitions and crossovers with their chiral symmetry properties are identified. For each x_f, the temperature dependence of p/T^4 and the quark-antiquark -condensate is computed. In the simplest case…
A holographic model of QCD in the limit of large number of colors, $N_c$, and massless fermion flavors, $N_f$, but constant ratio $x_f=N_f/N_c$ is analyzed at finite temperature and chemical potential. The five dimensional gravity model contains three bulk fields: a scalar dilaton sourcing ${\rm Tr}F^2$, a scalar tachyon dual to $\bar qq$ and a 4-vector dual to the baryon current $\bar q γ^μ q$. The main result is the $μ,T$ phase diagram of the holographic theory. A first order deconfining transition along $T_h(μ)$ and a chiral transition at $T_χ(μ)>T_h(μ)$ are found. The chiral transition is …
The Veneziano amplitude was put forward as a solution to the axioms of the S-matrix bootstrap. However, unitarity, reflected in the positivity of the coefficients in the Gegenbauer expansion of the amplitude is not obvious. In this note we compute the generating function of these coefficients in terms of the Appell hypergeometric function. We use this to read off an exact form of this coefficient on the leading Regge trajectory in $D=4$. We find that it decays with the spin but always remains positive. Since for large spin these coefficients are expected to be smaller than those on the sublead…
We discuss holographic QCD in the Veneziano limit (the V-QCD models), concentrating on phenomena near the "conformal" phase transition taking place at a critical value of the ratio x = N_f/N_c. In particular, we review the results for the S-parameter, the technidilaton, and the masses of the mesons.
We use the holographic V-QCD models to analyse the physics of dense QCD and neutron stars. Accommodating lattice results for thermodynamics of QCD enables us to make generic predictions for the Equation of State (EoS) of the quark matter phase in the cold and dense regime. We demonstrate that the resulting pressure in V-QCD matches well with a family of neutron-star-matter EoSs that interpolate between state-of-the-art theoretical results for low and high density QCD. After implementing the astrophysical constraints, i.e., the largest known neutron star mass and the recent LIGO/Virgo results f…
The holographic model of V-QCD is used to analyze the physics of QCD in the Veneziano large-N limit. An unprecedented analysis of the CP-odd physics is performed going beyond the level of effective field theories. The structure of holographic saddle-points at finite $θ$ is determined, as well as its interplay with chiral symmetry breaking. Many observables (vacuum energy and higher-order susceptibilities, singlet and non-singlet masses and mixings) are computed as functions of $θ$ and the quark mass $m$. Wherever applicable the results are compared to those of chiral Lagrangians, finding agree…
In this note we demonstrate how one can compute the Veneziano amplitude for bosonic string theory using the BCFW method. We use an educated ansatz for the cubic amplitude of two tachyons and an arbitrary level string state.
In this note we report on the analysis of the zero temperature spectra of glueballs and mesons for holographic QCD in the Veneziano limit. We work within a holographic bottom-up model named V-QCD which takes into account the full backreaction of the flavor degrees of freedom. By studying the fluctuations of this model we compute spectra of mesons and glueballs as a function of x=N_f/N_c. The spectra are discrete and gapped (modulo the pions) in the QCD regime, where x is below the critical value x_c at which the conformal transition takes place. The masses uniformly converge to zero in the wal…
We propose a number system covariance principle between $p$-adic and Archimedean frameworks. We use it to derive several closed-form expressions for the five-point open string tachyon scattering amplitude.
We detail the properties of the Veneziano, Virasoro, and Coon amplitudes. These tree-level four-point scattering amplitudes may be written as infinite products with an infinite sequence of simple poles. Our approach for the Coon amplitude uses the mathematical theory of $q$-analysis. We interpret the Coon amplitude as a $q$-deformation of the Veneziano amplitude for all $q \geq 0$ and discover a new transcendental structure in its low-energy expansion. We show that there is no analogous $q$-deformation of the Virasoro amplitude.
In a series of recently published papers we reanalyzed the existing treatments of Veneziano and Veneziano-like amplitudes and the models associated with these amplitudes. In this work we demonstrate that the already obtained new partition function for these amplitudes can be exactly mapped into that for the Polychronakos-Frahm (P-F) spin chain model. This observation allows us to recover many of the existing string-theoretic models, including the most recent ones.
String configurations with nonzero winding number describe soliton string states. We compute the Veneziano amplitude for the scattering of arbitrary winding states and show that in the large radius limit the strings always scatter trivially and with no change in the individual winding numbers of the strings. In this limit, then, these states scatter as true solitons.
The Veneziano amplitude is derived from fixing one degree of freedom of $PSL(2,\mathbb{R})$ symmetry by the insertion of a mostly BRST exact operator. Evaluating the five-point function which consists of four open string tachyons and this gauge fixing operator, we find it equals the Veneziano amplitude up to a sign factor. The sign factor is interpreted as a signed intersection number.The result implies that the mostly BRST exact operator, which is originally used to provide two-point string amplitudes, correctly fixes the $PSL(2,\mathbb{R})$ gauge symmetry for general amplitudes. We conjectur…
This paper is a short summary of already submitted papers hep-th/0410242 and hep-th/0502231. It provides a self contained description of earlier obtained results for physicists with traditional mathematical background.
In a previous paper (hep-th/0304045) it has been argued that tachyonic Dirac-Born-Infeld (DBI) actions can be obtained from open string theory in a limit, which generalizes the usual massless DBI limit. In the present note we review this construction focusing on a key property of the proposed tachyon effective actions: how they reproduce appropriate Veneziano amplitudes in a suitably defined kinematical region. Possible extensions and interesting open problems are briefly discussed.
We consider theories of weakly interacting higher spin particles in flat spacetime. We focus on the four-point scattering amplitude at high energies and imaginary scattering angles. The leading asymptotic of the amplitude in this regime is universal and equal to the corresponding limit of the Veneziano amplitude. In this paper, we find that the first sub-leading correction to this asymptotic is universal as well. We compute the correction using a model of relativistic strings with massive endpoints. We argue that it is unique using holography, effective theory of long strings and bootstrap tec…
We consider the finite temperature phase diagram of holographic QCD in the Veneziano limit (Nc large, Nf large with xf=Nf/Nc fixed) and calculate one string-loop corrections to the free energy in certain approximations. Such corrections, especially due to the pion modes are unsuppressed in the Veneziano limit. We find that under some extra assumptions the first order transition following from classical gravity solutions can become second order. If stringy asymptotics are of a special form and there are residual interactions it may even become of third order. Operationally these computations im…
Although QCD can be treated perturbatively in the high energy limit, lower energies requre uses of nonperturbative methods such as ADS/CFT and/or Abelian reduction.These methods are not equivalent. In this paper we provide arguments in favor of the Abelian reduction methods. This is achieved by further developing results of our recent works reanalyzing Veneziano and Veneziano-like amplitudes and the models associated with these amplitudes. It is shown, that the obtained new partition function for these amplitudes can be mapped exactly into that for the Polychronakos-Frahm spin chain model reco…
We consider the geometric transition and compute the all-genus topological string amplitudes expressed in terms of Hopf link invariants and topological vertices of Chern-Simons gauge theory. We introduce an operator technique of 2-dimensional CFT which greatly simplifies the computations. We in particular show that in the case of local Calabi-Yau manifolds described by toric geometry basic amplitudes are written as vacuum expectation values of a product vertex operators and thus appear quite similar to the Veneziano amplitudes of the old dual resonance models. Topological string amplitudes can…
University of Science and Technology of China(中国科学技术大学);Interdisciplinary Center for Theoretical Study, University of Science and Technology of China(中国科学技术大学理论物理交叉中心);Peng Huanwu Center for Fundamental Theory(彭桓武基础理论研究中心)
The dual resonance model, which was a precursor of string theory was based upon the idea that two-particle scattering amplitudes should be expressible equivalently as a sum of contributions of an infinite number of $s$ channel poles each corresponding to a finite number of particles with definite spin, or as a similar sum of $t$ channel poles. The famous example of Veneziano \cite{ven} satisfies all these requirements, and is additionally ghost free.We recall other trajectories which provide solutions to the duality constraints, e.g. the general Mobiüs trajectories and the logarithmic trajecto…
We have proposed a new type of string field theory. The main point of the present article is to cure some technical troubles: missing two out three terms in veneziano amplitude. Our novel string field theory, describes a theory with many strings in terms of "objects",which are not exactly, but close to Charles Thorn's string bits. The new point is that the objects in terms of which the universe states are constructed,and which have an essentially 26-momentum variable called J^μ, can have essentially the energy J^0 be also negative.We get a long way in deriving in this model the veneziano model…
In a series of published papers we reanalyzed treatments of the Veneziano amplitudes and the models associated with them. In this work we demonstrate that the already obtained partition function for these amplitudes can be exactly mapped into that for the Polychronakos-Frahm spin chain which, in turn, is obtainable from the Richardson-Gaudin XXX model. Reshetikhin and Varchenko demonstrated that such a model is recoverable from their WKB-type analysis of solutions of the Knizhnik-Zamolodchikov (K-Z) equations. The linear independence of solutions of these equations is controlled by determinant…
In this part of our four parts work (e.g see Part I, hep-th/0410242) we use the theory of polynomial invariants of finite pseudo-reflection groups in order to reconstruct both the Veneziano and Veneziano-like (tachyon-free) amplitudes and the generating function reproducing these amplitudes. We demonstrate that such generating function can be recovered with help of the finite dimensional exactly solvable N=2 supersymmetric quantum mechanical model known earlier from works by Witten, Stone and others. Using the Lefschetz isomorphisms theorem we replace traditional supersymmetric calculations by…
String theory offers an elegant and concrete realization of how to consistently couple states of arbitrarily high spin. But how unique is this construction? In this paper we derive a novel, multi-parameter family of four-point scattering amplitudes exhibiting i) polynomially bounded high-energy behavior and ii) exchange of an infinite tower of high-spin modes, albeit with a finite number of states at each resonance. These amplitudes take an infinite-product form and, depending on parameters, exhibit mass spectra that are either unbounded or bounded, thus corresponding to generalizations of the…
In this paper we use the analyticity properties of the scattering amplitude in the context of the conformal mapping techniques. The Schwarz-Christoffel and Riemann-Schwarz functions are used to map the upper half -plane onto a triangle. We use the known asymptotic and threshold behaviors of the scattering amplitude to establish a connection between the values of the Regge trajectory functions and the angles of the triangle. This geometrical interpretation allows a link between values of the Regge trajectory functions and the generators of the invariance group of Moebius transformations associa…
We consider weakly-coupled theories of massive higher-spin particles. This class of models includes, for instance, tree-level String Theory and Large-N Yang-Mills theory. The S-matrix in such theories is a meromorphic function obeying unitarity and crossing symmetry. We discuss the (unphysical) regime $s,t \gg 1$, in which we expect the amplitude to be universal and exponentially large. We develop methods to study this regime and show that the amplitude necessarily coincides with the Veneziano amplitude there. In particular, this implies that the leading Regge trajectory, $j(t)$, is asymptotic…
We give a careful definition of the open string propagator in Schnabl gauge and present its worldsheet interpretation. The propagator requires two Schwinger parameters and contains the BRST operator. It builds surfaces by gluing strips of variable width to the left and to the right of off-shell states with contracted or expanded local frames. We evaluate explicitly the four-point amplitude of off-shell tachyons. The computation involves a subtle boundary term, crucial to enforce the correct exchange symmetries. Interestingly, the familiar on-shell physics emerges even though string diagrams pr…
A d-dimensional rational polytope P is a polytope whose vertices are located at the nodes of d-dimensional Z-lattice. Consider a number of points inside the inflated polytope (with coefficient of inflation k, k=1,2, 3...). The Ehrhart polynomial of P counts the number of such lattice points (nodes) inside the inflated P and (may be) at its faces (including vertices). In Part I (hep-th/0410242) of our four parts work we noticed that the Veneziano amplitude is just the Laplace transform of the generating function (considered as a partition function in the sence of statistical mechanics) for the …
We compute meson scattering amplitudes using the holographic duality between confining gauge theories and string theory, in order to consider holographic corrections to the Veneziano amplitude and associated higher-point functions. The generic nature of such computations is explained, thanks to the well-understood nature of confining string backgrounds, and two different examples of the calculation in given backgrounds are used to illustrate the details. The effect we discover, whilst only qualitative, is re-obtainable in many such examples, in four-point but also higher point amplitudes.
We compute the four-point function of scalar operators in CFTs with weakly broken higher spin symmetry at arbitrary 't Hooft coupling. We use the known three-point functions in these theories, the Lorentzian OPE inversion formula and crossing to fix the result up to the addition of three functions of the cross ratios. These are given by contact Witten diagrams in AdS and manifest non-analyticity of the OPE data in spin. We use Schwinger-Dyson equations to show that such terms are absent in the large $N$ Chern-Simons matter theories. The result is that the OPE data is analytic in spin up to $J=…
A relativistic quantum model of particle scattering near the horizon of a microscopic black hole unifies gravity and the harmonic-oscillator force. The model is obtained by modifying a harmonic-oscillator nonstandard Lagrangian for a closed system of relativistic quarks to eliminate any cosmic background frame. Formulated in terms of the Planck units, the model has only one parameter, the cosmic number N2. Other results include (1) quark confinement through cluster decomposition rather than a binding potential, (2) lepton substructure without violation of known experimental results, (3) a spon…
The history of discovery of bosonic string theory is well documented. This theory evolved as an attempt to find a multidimensional analogue of Euler's beta function. Such an analogue had in fact been known in mathematics literature at least in 1922 and was studied subsequently by mathematicians such as Selberg, Weil and Deligne among others. The mathematical interpretation of this multidimensional beta function is markedly different from that described in physics literature. This paper aims to bridge the gap between the existing treatments. Preserving all results of conformal field theories in…
We provide a brief summary of a method to calculate improvements to the Veneziano Amplitude, creating sub-leading non-linearities in the Regge trajectory of states. We formulate it as an extension of a computation by Makeenko and Olesen. We begin in a confining gauge theory coupled to matter, rewriting the meson scattering amplitude as a specific path integral over shapes and sizes of closed Wilson loops using the worldline formalism. We then prescribe how to further the computation at strong coupling by employing holography, which provides a prescription for the expectation value of these Wil…
The bosonic string theory evolved as an attempt to find physical/quantum mechanical model capable of reproducing Euler's beta function (Veneziano amplitude) and its multidimensional analogue. The multidimensional analogue of beta function was studied mathematically for some time from different angles by mathematicians such as Selberg, Weil and Deligne among many others. The results of their studies apparently were not taken into account in physics literature on string theory. In recent publication hep-th/0212189 [IJMPA 19 (2004) 1655] an attempt was made to restore the missing links. The resul…
In the string holographic dual of large-N_c QCD with N_f flavours of Kruczenski et al, the eta' meson is massless at infinite N_c and dual to a collective fluctuation of N_f D6-brane probes in a supergravity background. Here we identify the string diagrams responsible for the generation of a mass of order N_f/N_c, consistent with the Witten-Veneziano formula, and show that the supregravity limit of these diagrams corresponds to mixings with pseudoscalar glueballs. We argue that the dependence on the theta-angle in the supergravity description occurs only through the combination theta + 2 \sqrt…
Bosonic string theory with the possibility for an arbitrary number of strings - i.e. a string field theory - is formulated by a Hilbert space (a Fock space), which is just that for massless noninteracting scalars. We earlier presented this novel type of string field theory, but now we show that it leads to scattering just given by the Veneziano model amplitude. Generalization to strings with fermion modes would presumably be rather easy. It is characteristic for our formulation /model that: 1) We have thrown away some null set of information compared to usual string field theory, 2)Formulated …
Recent progress in constructing holographic models for QCD is discussed, concentrating on the bottom-up models which implement holographically the renormalization group flow of QCD. The dynamics of gluons can be modeled by using a string-inspired model termed improved holographic QCD, and flavor can be added by introducing space filling branes in this model. The flavor fully backreacts to the glue in the Veneziano limit, giving rise to a class of models which are called V-QCD. The phase diagrams and spectra of V-QCD are in good agreement with results for QCD obtained by other methods.