arXiv subjects

Alberto Guijosa

Publications and source records attributed to Alberto Guijosa.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2010

Radiation Damping in a Non-Abelian Strongly-Coupled Gauge Theory

We study a `dressed' or `composite' quark in strongly-coupled N=4 super-Yang-Mills (SYM), making use of the AdS/CFT correspondence. We show that the standard string dynamics nicely captures the physics of the quark and its surrounding quantum non-Abelian field configuration, making it possible to derive a relativistic equation of motion that incorporates the effects of radiation damping. From this equation one can deduce a non-standard dispersion relation for the composite quark, as well as a Lorentz covariant formula for its rate of radiation.

hep-th↗

arXiv2010

Quantum Fluctuations and the Unruh Effect in Strongly-Coupled Conformal Field Theories

Through the AdS/CFT correspondence, we study a uniformly accelerated quark in the vacuum of strongly-coupled conformal field theories in various dimensions, and determine the resulting stochastic fluctuations of the quark trajectory. From the perspective of an inertial observer, these are quantum fluctuations induced by the gluonic radiation emitted by the accelerated quark. From the point of view of the quark itself, they originate from the thermal medium predicted by the Unruh effect. We scrutinize the relation between these two descriptions in the gravity side of the correspondence, and show in particular that upon transforming the conformal field theory from Rindler space to the open Einstein universe, the acceleration horizon disappears from the boundary theory but is preserved in the bulk. This transformation allows us to directly connect our calculation of radiation-induced fluctuations in vacuum with the analysis by de Boer et al. of the Brownian motion of a quark that is on average static within a thermal medium. Combining this same bulk transformation with previous results of Emparan, we are also able to compute the stress-energy tensor of the Unruh thermal medium.

hep-th↗

arXiv2009

A Tail of a Quark in N=4 SYM

We study the dynamics of a `composite' or `dressed' quark in strongly-coupled large-N_c N=4 super-Yang-Mills, making use of the AdS/CFT correspondence. We show that the standard string dynamics nicely captures the physics of the quark and its surrounding non-Abelian field configuration, making it possible to derive a relativistic equation of motion that incorporates the effects of radiation damping. From this equation one can deduce a non-standard dispersion relation for the composite quark, as well as a Lorentz covariant formula for its rate of radiation. We explore the consequences of the equation in a few simple examples.

hep-th↗

arXiv2009

Acceleration and Energy Loss in N=4 SYM

We give a brief overview of the results obtained in arXiv:0803.3070, concerning the rate of energy loss of an accelerating quark in strongly-coupled N=4 super-Yang-Mills, both at zero and finite temperature. For phenomenological purposes, our main result is that, when a quark is created within the plasma together with its corresponding antiquark, the quark starts feeling the plasma only after the q-\bar{q} separation becomes larger than the (v-dependent) screening length, and from this point on the motion is correctly described by the analytic energy loss formula previously derived by Herzog et al. and Gubser within the stationary or late-time approximations. The present text is a slightly expanded version of two talks given at the XIII Mexican School of Particles and Fields in October 2008.

hep-th↗

arXiv2009

Generalized Lorentz-Dirac Equation for a Strongly-Coupled Gauge Theory

We derive a semiclassical equation of motion for a `composite' quark in strongly-coupled large-N_c N=4 super-Yang-Mills, making use of the AdS/CFT correspondence. The resulting non-linear equation incorporates radiation damping, and reduces to the standard Lorentz-Dirac equation for external forces that are small on the scale of the quark Compton wavelength, but has no self-accelerating or pre-accelerating solutions. From this equation one can read off a non-standard dispersion relation for the quark, as well as a Lorentz covariant formula for its radiation rate.

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arXiv2008

Acceleration, Energy Loss and Screening in Strongly-Coupled Gauge Theories

We explore various aspects of the motion of heavy quarks in strongly-coupled gauge theories, employing the AdS/CFT correspondence. Building on earlier work by Mikhailov, we study the dispersion relation and energy loss of an accelerating finite-mass quark in N=4 super-Yang-Mills, both in vacuum and in the presence of a thermal plasma. In the former case, we notice that the application of an external force modifies the dispersion relation. In the latter case, we find in particular that when a static heavy quark is accelerated by an external force, its rate of energy loss is initially insensitive to the plasma, and there is a delay before this rate approaches the value derived previously from the analysis of stationary or late-time configurations. Following up on work by Herzog et al., we also consider the evolution of a quark and antiquark as they separate from one another after formation, learning how the AdS/CFT setup distinguishes between the singlet and adjoint configurations, and locating the transition to the stage where the deceleration of each particle is properly accounted for by a constant friction coefficient. Additionally, we examine the way in which the energy of a quark-antiquark pair moving jointly through the plasma scales with the quark mass. We find that the velocity-dependence of the screening length is drastically modified in the ultra-relativistic region, and is comparable with that of the transition distance mentioned above.

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arXiv2007

Energy Loss of Gluons, Baryons and k-Quarks in an N=4 SYM Plasma

We consider different types of external color sources that move through a strongly-coupled thermal N=4 super-Yang-Mills plasma, and calculate, via the AdS/CFT correspondence, the dissipative force (or equivalently, the rate of energy loss) they experience. A bound state of k quarks in the totally antisymmetric representation is found to feel a force with a nontrivial k-dependence. Our result for k=1 (or k=N-1) agrees at large N with the one obtained recently by Herzog et al. and Gubser, but contains in addition an infinite series of 1/N corrections. The baryon (k=N) is seen to experience no drag. Finally, a heavy gluon is found to be subject to a force which at large N is twice as large as the one experienced by a heavy quark, in accordance with gauge theory expectations.

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arXiv2006

On Drag Forces and Jet Quenching in Strongly Coupled Plasmas

We compute the drag force experienced by a heavy quark that moves through plasma in a gauge theory whose dual description involves arbitrary metric and dilaton fields. As a concrete application, we consider the cascading gauge theory at temperatures high above the deconfining scale, where we obtain a drag force with a non-trivial velocity dependence. We compare our results with the jet-quenching parameter for the same theory, and find qualitative agreement between the two approaches. Conversely, we calculate the jet-quenching parameter for N=4 super-Yang-Mills with an R-charge density (or equivalently, a chemical potential), and compare our result with the corresponding drag force.

hep-th↗

arXiv2006

Drag Force in a Charged N=4 SYM Plasma

Following recent developments, we employ the AdS/CFT correspondence to determine the drag force exerted on an external quark that moves through an N=4 super-Yang-Mills plasma with a non-zero R-charge density (or, equivalently, a non-zero chemical potential). We find that the drag force is larger than in the case where the plasma is neutral, but the dependence on the charge is non-monotonic.

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arXiv2006

The Energy of a Moving Quark-Antiquark Pair in an N=4 SYM Plasma

We make use of the AdS/CFT correspondence to determine the energy of an external quark-antiquark pair that moves through strongly-coupled thermal N=4 super-Yang-Mills plasma, both in the rest frame of the plasma and in the rest frame of the pair. It is found that the pair feels no drag force, has an energy that reproduces the expected 1/L (or gamma/L) behavior at small quark-antiquark separations, and becomes unbound beyond a certain screening length whose velocity-dependence we determine. We discuss the relation between the high-velocity limit of our results and the lightlike Wilson loop proposed recently as a definition of the jet-quenching parameter.

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arXiv2005

A prototype for dS/CFT

We consider dS_2/CFT_1 where the asymptotic symmetry group of the de Sitter spacetime contains the Virasoro algebra. We construct representations of the Virasoro algebra realized in the Fock space of a massive scalar field in de Sitter, built as excitations of the Euclidean vacuum state. These representations are unitary, without highest weight, and have vanishing central charge. They provide a prototype for a new class of conformal field theories dual to de Sitter backgrounds in string theory. The mapping of operators in the CFT to bulk quantities is described in detail. We comment on the extension to dS_3/CFT_2.

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arXiv2004

Threebrane Absorption and Emission from a Brane-Antibrane System

We show that a previously proposed model based on a D3-brane--anti-D3-brane system at finite temperature can reproduce the low-frequency absorption and emission probabilities of the black threebrane of Type IIB supergravity arbitrarily far from extremality, for arbitrary partial waves of a minimal scalar field. Our calculations cover in particular the case of the neutral threebrane, which corresponds to the Schwarzschild black hole in seven dimensions. Our results provide not only significant evidence in favor of the brane-antibrane model, but also a rationale for the condition that the energies of the two component gases agree with one another. In the course of our analysis we correct previous results on the absorption probabilities of the near-extremal threebrane, and extend them to the far-from-extremal regime.

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arXiv2004

The Entropy of the Rotating Charged Black Threebrane from a Brane-Antibrane System

We show that a model based on a D3-brane--anti-D3-brane system at finite temperature, proposed previously as a microscopic description of the non-rotating black threebrane of type IIB supergravity arbitrarily far from extremality, can also successfully reproduce the entropy of the rotating threebrane with arbitrary charge (including the neutral case, which corresponds to the Kerr black hole in seven dimensions). Our results appear to confirm in particular the need for a peculiar condition on the energy of the two gases involved in the model, whose physical interpretation remains to be elucidated.

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arXiv2004

A new twist on dS/CFT

We stress that the dS/CFT correspondence should be formulated using unitary principal series representations of the de Sitter isometry group/conformal group, rather than highest-weight representations as originally proposed. These representations, however, are infinite-dimensional, and so do not account for the finite gravitational entropy of de Sitter space in a natural way. We then propose to replace the classical isometry group by a q-deformed version. This is carried out in detail for two-dimensional de Sitter and we find that the unitary principal series representations deform to finite-dimensional unitary representations of the quantum group. We believe this provides a promising microscopic framework to account for the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy of de Sitter space.

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arXiv2003

Conifold Holography

We examine the extension of the Klebanov-Witten gauge/gravity correspondence away from the low-energy conformal limit, to a duality involving the full, asymptotically Ricci-flat background describing three-branes on the conifold. After a discussion of the nature of this duality at the string theory level (prior to taking any limits), we concentrate on the intermediate-energy regime where excited string modes are negligible but the branes are still coupled to the bulk. Building upon previous work, we are able to characterize the effective D3-brane worldvolume action in this regime as an IR deformation of the Klebanov-Witten N=1 superconformal gauge theory by a specific dimension-eight operator. In addition, we compute the two-point functions of the operators dual to all partial waves of the dilaton on the conifold-three-brane background, and subject them to various checks.

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arXiv2003

M, Membranes, and OM

We examine the extent to which the action for the membrane of M-theory (the eleven-dimensional construct which underlies and unifies all of the known string theories) simplifies in the so-called Open Membrane (OM) limit, a limit which lies at the root of the various manifestations of noncommutativity in the string context. In order for the discussion to be relatively self-contained, we start out by reviewing why the strings of ten-dimensional string theory are in fact membranes (M2-branes) living in eleven dimensions. After that, we recall the definition of OM theory, as well as the arguments showing that it is part of a larger, eleven-dimensional structure known as Galilean or Wrapped M2-brane (WM2) theory. WM2 theory is a rich theoretical construct which is interesting for several reasons, in particular because it is essentially a toy model of M-theory. We then proceed to deduce a membrane action for OM/WM2 theory, and spell out its implications for the four different types of M2-branes one can consider in this setting. For two of these types, the action in question can be simplified by gauge-fixing to a form which implies a discrete membrane spectrum. The boundary conditions for the remaining two cases do not allow this same gauge choice, and so their dynamics remain to be unraveled.

hep-th↗

arXiv2002

Black Brane Entropy from Brane-Antibrane Systems

In the context of string theory, it is possible to explain the microscopic origin of the entropy of certain black holes in terms of D-brane systems. To date, most of the cases studied in detail refer to extremal (supersymmetric) or near-extremal black holes. In this work we propose a microscopic model for certain black branes (extended versions of black holes) which would apply to cases arbitrarily far from extremality, including the Schwarzschild case. The model is based on a system of D-branes and anti-D-branes, and is able to reproduce several properties of the corresponding supergravity solution. In particular, the microscopic entropy agrees with supergravity, except for a factor of 2^{p/p+1}, where p is the dimension of the brane.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2002

A Membrane Action for OM Theory

Through direct examination of the effect of the OM limit on the M2-brane worldvolume action, we derive a membrane action for OM theory, and more generally, for the eleven-dimensional M-theoretic construct known as Galilean or Wrapped M2-brane (WM2) theory, which contains OM theory as a special class of states. In the static gauge, the action in question implies a discrete spectrum for the closed membrane of WM2 theory, which under double dimensional reduction is shown to reproduce the known NCOS/Wound closed string spectrum. We examine as well open membranes ending on each of the three types of M5-branes in WM2 theory (OM theory arising from the 'longitudinal' type), and show that the 'fully transverse' fivebrane is tensionless. As a prelude to the membrane, we also study the case of the string, where we likewise obtain a reparametrization-invariant action, and make contact with previous work.

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