arXiv subjects

Clifford V. Johnson

Publications and source records attributed to Clifford V. Johnson.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2018

An Exact Model of the Power/Efficiency Trade-Off While Approaching the Carnot Limit

The Carnot heat engine sets an upper bound on the efficiency of a heat engine. As an ideal, reversible engine, a single cycle must be performed in infinite time, and so the Carnot engine has zero power. However, there is nothing in principle forbidding the existence of a heat engine whose efficiency approaches that of Carnot while maintaining finite power. Such an engine must have very special properties, some of which have been discussed in the literature, in various limits. While recent theorems rule out a large class of engines from maintaining finite power at exactly the Carnot efficiency, the approach to the limit still merits close study. Presented here is an exactly solvable model of such an approach that may serve as a laboratory for exploration of the underlying mechanisms. The equations of state have their origins in the extended thermodynamics of electrically charged black holes.

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arXiv2017

Benchmarking Black Hole Heat Engines, II

We extend to non-static black holes our benchmarking scheme that allows for cross-comparison of the efficiencies of asymptotically AdS black holes used as working substances in heat engines. We use a circular cycle in the p-V plane as the benchmark cycle. We study Kerr black holes in four spacetime dimensions as an example. As in the static case, we find an exact formula for the benchmark efficiency in an ideal-gas-like limit, which may serve as an upper bound for rotating black hole heat engines in a thermodynamic ensemble with fixed angular velocity. We use the benchmarking scheme to compare Kerr to static black holes charged under Maxwell and Born-Infeld sectors.

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arXiv2017

Critical Black Holes in a Large Charge Limit

The extended thermodynamics of Reissner-Nordström charged black holes in D-dimensional anti-de Sitter spacetime has a phase structure in the (T,p) plane that includes a line of first order phase transitions ending in a second order transition point. For each D>=4, properties of the critical black hole at that point are explored, motivated by the observation that in D=4 its neighbourhood plays a core role in defining a very special class of heat engines that asymptote to Carnot efficiency in the large charge limit. This new limit provides a model of a novel low-temperature thermodynamic system. The double limit of approaching the horizon while sending q large at an appropriate rate yields a fully decoupled D-dimensional Rindler spacetime with zero cosmological constant.

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arXiv2016

Gauss-Bonnet Black Holes and Holographic Heat Engines Beyond Large N

Working in the extended black hole thermodynamics where a dynamical cosmological constant defines a thermodynamic pressure p, we study the efficiency of heat engines that perform mechanical work via the pdV terms now present in the First Law. Here the black hole itself is the working substance, and we focus on a judiciously chosen engine cycle. We work in Gauss-Bonnet-Einstein-Maxwell gravity with negative cosmological constant and, using a high temperature expansion, compare the results for these `holographic' heat engines to that of previously studied cases with no Gauss-Bonnet sector. From the dual holographic large N field theory perspective, this amounts to studying the effects of a class of 1/N corrections to the efficiency of the cycle.

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arXiv2016

Benchmarking Black Hole Heat Engines

We present the results of initiating a benchmarking scheme that allows for cross-comparison of the efficiencies of black holes used as working substances in heat engines. We use a circular cycle in the p-V plane as the benchmark engine. We test it on Einstein-Maxwell, Gauss-Bonnet, and Born-Infeld black holes. Also, we derive a new and surprising exact result for the efficiency of a special `ideal gas' system to which all the black holes asymptote.

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arXiv2016

An Exact Efficiency Formula for Holographic Heat Engines

Further consideration is given to the efficiency of black hole heat engines that perform mechanical work via the pdV terms present in the First Law of extended gravitational thermodynamics. It is noted that when the engine cycle is a rectangle with sides parallel to the (p,V) axes, the efficiency can be written simply in terms of the mass of the black hole evaluated at the corners. Since an arbitrary cycle can be approximated to any desired accuracy by a tiling of rectangles, a general geometrical algorithm for computing the efficiency follows. A simple generalization of the algorithm renders it applicable to more general classes of heat engine, beyond the black hole context.

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arXiv2016

Born-Infeld AdS Black Holes as Heat Engines

We study the efficiency of heat engines that perform mechanical work via the pdV terms present in the First Law in extended gravitational thermodynamics. We use charged black holes as the working substance, for a particular choice of engine cycle. The context is Einstein gravity with negative cosmological constant and a Born-Infeld non-linear electrodynamics sector. We compare the results for these `holographic' heat engines to previous results obtained for Einstein-Maxwell black holes, and for the case where there is a Gauss-Bonnet sector.

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arXiv2015

Entanglement Entropy of Magnetic Electron Stars

We study the behavior of the entanglement entropy in $(2+1)$--dimensional strongly coupled theories via the AdS/CFT correspondence. We consider theories at a finite charge density with a magnetic field, with their holographic dual being Einstein-Maxwell-Dilaton theory in four dimensional anti--de Sitter gravity. Restricting to black hole and electron star solutions at zero temperature in the presence of a background magnetic field, we compute their holographic entanglement entropy using the Ryu-Takayanagi prescription for both strip and disk geometries. In the case of the electric or magnetic zero temperature black holes, we are able to confirm that the entanglement entropy is invariant under electric-magnetic duality. In the case of the electron star with a finite magnetic field, for the strip geometry, we find a discontinuity in the first derivative of the entanglement entropy as the strip width is increased.

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arXiv2015

The Extended Thermodynamic Phase Structure of Taub-NUT and Taub-Bolt

We study aspects of the extended gravitational thermodynamics for the Taub-NUT and Taub-Bolt geometries in four dimensional locally anti-de Sitter spacetime, where the cosmological constant is treated as a dynamical pressure. Attention is paid to the phase structure in the (p,T) plane, which has a line of first order phase transitions extending from the origin. We argue for a dynamical interpretation of the unstable physics in the negative specific heat region. A deformation corresponding to a dyonic Taub-NUT/Bolt system is also explored, and the effect of the deformation on the phase diagram is characterised.

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arXiv2014

Holographic Heat Engines

It is shown that in theories of gravity where the cosmological constant is considered a thermodynamic variable, it is natural to use black holes as heat engines. Two examples are presented in detail using AdS charged black holes as the working substance. We notice that for static black holes, the maximally efficient traditional Carnot engine is also a Stirling engine. The case of negative cosmological constant supplies a natural realization of these engines in terms of the field theory description of the fluids to which they are holographically dual. We first propose a precise picture of how the traditional thermodynamic dictionary of holography is extended when the cosmological constant is dynamical and then conjecture that the engine cycles can be performed by using renormalization group flow. We speculate about the existence of a natural dual field theory counterpart to the gravitational thermodynamic volume.

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arXiv2014

Thermodynamic Volumes for AdS-Taub-NUT and AdS-Taub-Bolt

In theories of semi-classical quantum gravity where the cosmological constant is considered a thermodynamic variable, the gravitational mass of a black hole has been shown to correspond to the enthalpy of the thermodynamic system, rather than the energy. We propose that this should be extended to all spacetime solutions, and consider the meaning of this extension of gravitational thermodynamics for the Taub-NUT and Taub-Bolt geometries in four dimensional locally anti-de Sitter spacetime. We present formulae for their thermodynamic volumes. Surprisingly, Taub-NUT has negative volume, for which there is a natural dynamical explanation in terms of the process of formation of the spacetime. A special case corresponds to pure AdS_4 with an S^3 slicing. The same dynamical setting can explain the negative entropy known to exist for these solutions for a range of parameters.

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arXiv2013

Large N Phase Transitions, Finite Volume, and Entanglement Entropy

Holographic studies of the entanglement entropy of field theories dual to charged and neutral black holes in asymptotically global AdS4 spacetimes are presented. The goal is to elucidate various properties of the quantity that are peculiar to working in finite volume, and to gain access to the behaviour of the entanglement entropy in the rich thermodynamic phase structure that is present at finite volume and large N. The entropy is followed through various first order phase transitions, and also a novel second order phase transition. Properties of a specific heat in the neighbourhood of the critical point are computed. Behaviour is found that contrasts interestingly with an earlier holographic study of a second order phase transition dual to an holographic superconductor.

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arXiv2012

Holography, Fractionalization and Magnetic Fields

Four dimensional gravity with a U(1) gauge field, coupled to various fields in asymptotically anti-de Sitter spacetime, provides a rich arena for the holographic study of the strongly coupled (2+1)-dimensional dynamics of finite density matter charged under a global U(1). As a first step in furthering the study of the properties of fractionalized and partially fractionalized degrees of freedom in the strongly coupled theory, we construct electron star solutions at zero temperature in the presence of a background magnetic field. We work in Einstein-Maxwell-dilaton theory. In all cases we construct, the magnetic source is cloaked by an event horizon. A key ingredient of our solutions is our observation that starting with the standard Landau level structure for the density of states, the electron star limits reduce the charge density and energy density to that of the free fermion result. Using this result we construct three types of solution: One has a star in the infra-red with an electrically neutral horizon, another has a star that begins at an electrically charged event horizon, and another has the star begin a finite distance from an electrically charged horizon.

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arXiv2012

Holographic Studies of Entanglement Entropy in Superconductors

We present the results of our studies of the entanglement entropy of a superconducting system described holographically as a fully back-reacted gravity system, with a stable ground state. We use the holographic prescription for the entanglement entropy. We uncover the behavior of the entropy across the superconducting phase transition, showing the reorganization of the degrees of freedom of the system. We exhibit the behaviour of the entanglement entropy from the superconducting transition all the way down to the ground state at T=0. In some cases, we also observe a novel transition in the entanglement entropy at intermediate temperatures, resulting from the detection of an additional length scale.

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arXiv2012

Holographic Entanglement Entropy and Renormalization Group Flow

Using holography, we study the entanglement entropy of strongly coupled field theories perturbed by operators that trigger an RG flow from a conformal field theory in the ultraviolet (UV) to a new theory in the infrared (IR). The holographic duals of such flows involve a geometry that has the UV and IR regions separated by a transitional structure in the form of a domain wall. We address the question of how the geometric approach to computing the entanglement entropy organizes the field theory data, exposing key features as the change in degrees of freedom across the flow, how the domain wall acts as a UV region for the IR theory, and a new area law controlled by the domain wall. Using a simple but robust model we uncover this organization, and expect much of it to persist in a wide range of holographic RG flow examples. We test our formulae in two known examples of RG flow in 3+1 and 2+1 dimensions that connect non-trivial fixed points.

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arXiv2011

Global Currents, Phase Transitions, and Chiral Symmetry Breaking in Large N_c Gauge Theory

We study, using a gravity dual, the finite temperature dynamics of $SU(N_c)$ gauge theory for large $N_c$, with fundamental quark flavours in a quenched approximation, in the presence of a fixed R--charge under a global R--current. We observe several notable phenomena. There is a first order phase transition where the quark condensate jumps discontinuously at finite quark mass, generalizing similar transitions seen at zero charge. Our tool in these studies is holography, the string dual of the gauge theory being the geometry of $N_c$ spinning D3--branes at finite temperature, probed by a D7--brane.

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arXiv2011

Thermal Dynamics of Quarks and Mesons in N=2* Yang-Mills Theory

We study the dynamics of quenched fundamental matter in $\mathcal{N}=2^\ast$ supersymmetric large $N_c$ $SU(N_c)$ Yang-Mills theory, extending our earlier work to finite temperature. We use probe D7-branes in the holographically dual thermalized generalization of the $\mathcal{N}=2^\ast$ Pilch-Warner gravitational background found by Buchel and Liu. Such a system provides an opportunity to study how key features of the dynamics are affected by being in a non-conformal setting where there is an intrinsic scale, set here by the mass, $m_H$, of a hypermultiplet. Such studies are motivated by connections to experimental studies of the quark-gluon plasma at RHIC and LHC, where the microscopic theory of the constituents, QCD, has a scale, $Λ_{\rm QCD}$. We show that the binding energy of mesons in the $\mathcal{N}=2^\ast$ theory is increased in the presence of the scale $m_H$, and that subsequently the meson-melting temperature is higher than for the conformal case.

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arXiv2011

Dynamics of Fundamental Matter in N=2* Yang-Mills Theory

We study the dynamics of quenched fundamental matter in $\mathcal{N}=2^\ast$ supersymmetric large $N$ SU(N) Yang-Mills theory at zero temperature. Our tools for this study are probe D7-branes in the holographically dual $\mathcal{N}=2^\ast$ Pilch-Warner gravitational background. Previous work using D3-brane probes of this geometry has shown that it captures the physics of a special slice of the Coulomb branch moduli space of the gauge theory, where the $N$ constituent D3-branes form a dense one dimensional locus known as the enhancon, located deep in the infrared. Our present work shows how this physics is supplemented by the physics of dynamical flavours, revealed by the D7-branes embeddings we find. The Pilch-Warner background introduces new divergences into the D7-branes free energy, which we are able to remove with a single counterterm. We find a family of D7-brane embeddings in the geometry and discuss their properties. We study the physics of the quark condensate, constituent quark mass, and part of the meson spectrum. Notably, there is a special zero mass embedding that ends on the enhancon, which shows that while the geometry acts repulsively on the D7-branes, it does not do so in a way that produces spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking.

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