Jet Quenching and Holographic Thermalization
We employ the AdS/CFT correspondence to investigate the thermalization of the strongly-coupled plasma and the jet quenching of a hard probe traversing such a thermalizing medium.
hep-th↗
arXiv subjects
Diana Vaman
Publications and source records attributed to Diana Vaman.
On the 3-point functions of Aging Dynamics and the AdS/CFT Correspondence
Aging can be realized as a sub-algebra of Schrödinger algebra by discarding the time-translation generator. While the 2-point functions of the Age algebra have been known for some time, little else was known about the higher $n$-point correlators. In this letter we present novel 3-point correlators of scalar primary operators. We find that the Aging correlators are distinct from the Schrödinger correlators by more than certain dressings with time-dependent factors, as was the case with 2-point functions. In the existing literature, the holographic geometry of Aging is obtained by performing certain general coordinate transformations on the holographic dual of the Schrödinger theory. Consequently, the Aging 2-point functions derived from holography look as the Schrödinger 2-point functions dressed by time-dependent factors. However, since the 3-point functions obtained in this letter are not merely dressed Schrödinger correlators and instead depend on an additional time-translation breaking variable, we conclude that the most general holographic realization of Aging is yet to be found.
hep-th↗
Coupling dependence of jet quenching in hot strongly-coupled gauge theories
Previous top-down studies of jet stopping in strongly-coupled QCD-like plasmas with gravity duals have been in the infinite 't Hooft coupling limit lambda -> infinity. They have found that, though a wide range of jet stopping distances are possible depending on initial conditions, the maximum jet stopping distance l_max scales with energy as E^(1/3) at large energy. But it has always been unclear whether the large-coupling and high-energy limits commute. In this paper, we use the string alpha' expansion in AdS-CFT to study the corrections to the lambda=infinity result in powers of 1/lambda. For the particular type of "jets" that we study, we find that (i) the naive expansion in 1/lambda breaks down for certain initial conditions but (ii) the relative corrections to the maximum stopping distance are small when 1/lambda is small. More specifically, we find that the expansion in 1/lambda is well behaved for jets whose stopping distance l_stop is in the range lambda^(-1/6) l_max << l_stop <~ l_max, but the expansion breaks down (and the fate of lambda=infinity results is uncertain) for jets created in such a way that l_stop << lambda^(-1/6) l_max. The analysis requires assessing the effects of all higher-derivative corrections to the supergravity action for the gravity dual.
hep-th↗
4-point correlators in finite-temperature AdS/CFT: jet quenching correlations
There has been recent progress on computing real-time equilibrium 3-point functions in finite-temperature strongly-coupled N=4 super Yang-Mills (SYM). In this paper, we show an example of how to carry out a similar analysis for a 4-point function. We look at the stopping of high-energy "jets" in such strongly-coupled plasmas and relate the question of whether, on an event-by-event basis, each jet deposits its net charge over a narrow (~ 1/T) or wide (>> 1/T) spatial region. We relate this question to the calculation of a 4-point equilibrium correlator.
hep-th↗
Some new results for "jet" stopping in AdS/CFT
We give a breezy, qualitative overview of some of our recent results on studying jet stopping in strongly-coupled plasmas using gauge-gravity duality. Previously, people have found that the maximum stopping distance in such plasmas scales with energy as E^{1/3}. We show that there is an important distinction between typical and maximum stopping distances. For the strongly-coupled excitations that we study, we find that the typical stopping distance scales with energy as E^{1/4}.
hep-th↗
Second order hydrodynamic coefficients from 3-point stress tensor correlators via AdS/CFT
We study second order relativistic viscous hydrodynamics in 4-dimensional conformal field theories. We derive Kubo-type relations for second order hydrodynamic coefficients in terms of 3-point stress tensor retarded correlators. For N=4 super Yang-Mills theory at strong coupling and at finite temperature we compute these stress tensor 3-point correlators, using AdS/CFT, by evaluating real-time cubic Witten diagrams in the AdS-Schwarzschild background. The small momentum expansion of the 3-point correlators in terms of first and second order hydrodynamic coefficients is matched with the AdS result. We arrive at the same expressions for the hydrodynamic coefficients which multiply terms quadratic in the shear and vorticity tensors in the hydrodynamic expansion of the stress tensor as did Bhattacharyya, Hubeny, Minwalla and Rangamani \cite{Bhattacharyya:2008jc}. Our method extends the results of Baier et al \cite{Baier:2007ix}, and allows for a unified treatment of hydrodynamic coefficients, which are extracted from 2-, and now, 3-point retarded stress tensor correlators in the AdS-Schwarzschild background.
hep-th↗
Jet quenching in hot strongly coupled gauge theories simplified
Theoretical studies of jet stopping in strongly-coupled QCD-like plasmas have used gauge-gravity duality to find that the maximum stopping distance scales like E^{1/3} for large jet energies E. In recent work studying jets that are created by finite-size sources in the gauge theory, we found an additional scale: the typical (as opposed to maximum) jet stopping distance scales like (EL)^{1/4}, where L is the size of the space-time region where the jet is created. In this paper, we show that the results of our previous, somewhat involved computation in the gravity dual, and the (EL)^{1/4} scale in particular, can be very easily reproduced and understood in terms of the distance that high-energy particles travel in AdS_5-Schwarzschild space before falling into the black brane. We also investigate how stopping distances depend on the conformal dimension of the source operator used to create the jet.
hep-th↗
Holographic real-time non-relativistic correlators at zero and finite temperature
We compute a variety of two and three-point real-time correlation functions for a strongly-coupled non-relativistic field theory. We focus on the theory conjectured to be dual to the Schrödinger-invariant gravitational spacetime introduced by Balasubramanian, McGreevy, and Son, but our methods apply to a large class of non-relativistic theories. At zero temperature, we obtain time-ordered, retarded, and Wightman non-relativistic correlators for scalar operators of arbitrary conformal dimension directly in field theory by applying a certain lightlike Fourier transform to relativistic conformal correlators, and we verify that non-relativistic AdS/CFT reproduces the results. We compute thermal two and three-point real-time correlators for scalar operators dual to scalar fields in the black hole background which is the finite temperature generalization of the Schrödinger spacetime. This is done by first identifying thermal real-time bulk-to-boundary propagators, which combined with Veltman's circling rules, yield two and three-point correlators. The two-point correlators we obtain satisfy the Kallen-Lehmann relations. We also give retarded and time-ordered three-point correlators.
hep-th↗
Constraints and Generalized Gauge Transformations on Tree-Level Gluon and Graviton Amplitudes
Writing the fully color dressed and graviton amplitudes, respectively, as ${\bf A}= = $ and ${\bf A}_{gr}= <\tilde N|M|N> $, where $|A> $ is a set of Kleiss-Kuijf color-ordered basis, $|N>, $|\tilde N> $ and $|C>$ are the similarly ordered numerators and color coefficients, we show that the propagator matrix $M$ has $(n-3)(n-3)!$ independent eigenvectors $|λ^0_j>$ with zero eigenvalue, for $n$-particle processes. The resulting equations $<λ^0_j|A> = 0$ are relations among the color ordered amplitudes. The freedom to shift $|N> \to |N> +\sum_j f_j|λ^0_j>$ and similarly for $|\tilde N>$, where $f_j$ are $(n-3)(n-3)!$ arbitrary functions, encodes generalized gauge transformations. They yield both BCJ amplitude and KLT relations, when such freedom is accounted for. Furthermore, $f_j$ can be promoted to the role of effective Lagrangian vertices in the field operator space.
hep-th↗
Jet quenching in hot strongly coupled gauge theories revisited: 3-point correlators with gauge-gravity duality
Previous studies of high-energy jet stopping in strongly-coupled plasmas have lacked a clear gauge-theory specification of the initial state. We show how to set up a well-defined gauge theory problem to study jet stopping in pure {\cal N}=4 super Yang Mills theory (somewhat analogous to Hofman and Maldacena's studies at zero temperature) and solve it by using gauge-gravity duality for real-time, finite-temperature 3-point correlators. Previous studies have found that the stopping distance scales with energy as E^{1/3} (with disagreement on the gauge coupling dependence). We do find that none of the jet survives beyond this scale, but we find that almost all of our jet stops at a parametrically smaller scale proportional to (E L)^{1/4}, where L is the size of the space-time region where the jet is initially created.
hep-th↗
Real-time finite-temperature correlators from AdS/CFT
In this paper we use AdS/CFT ideas in conjunction with insights from finite temperature real-time field theory formalism to compute 3-point correlators of ${\cal N}{=}4$ super Yang-Mills operators, in real time and at finite temperature. To this end, we propose that the gravity field action is integrated only over the right and left quadrants of the Penrose diagram of the Anti de Sitter-Schwarzschild background, with a relative sign between the two terms. For concreteness we consider the case of a scalar field in the black hole background. Using the scalar field Schwinger-Keldysh bulk-to-boundary propagators, we give the general expression of a 3-point real-time Green's correlator. We then note that this particular prescription amounts to adapting the finite-temperature analog of Veltman's circling rules to tree-level Witten diagrams, and comment on the retarded and Feynman scalar bulk-to-boundary propagators. We subject our prescription to several checks: KMS identities, the largest time equation and the zero-temperature limit. When specializing to a particular retarded (causal) 3-point function, we find a very simple answer: the momentum-space correlator is given by three causal (two retarded and one advanced) bulk-to-boundary propagators, meeting at a vertex point which is integrated from spatial infinity to the horizon only. This result is expected based on analyticity, since the retarded n-point functions are obtained by analytic continuation from the imaginary time Green's function, and based on causality considerations.
hep-th↗
Massive quark scattering at strong coupling from AdS/CFT
We extend the analysis of Alday and Maldacena for obtaining gluon scattering amplitudes at strong coupling to include external massive quark states. Our quarks are actually the N=2 hypermultiplets which arise when D7-brane probes are included in the AdS_5 x S^5 geometry. We work in the quenched approximation, treating the N=2 matter multiplets as external sources coupled to the N=4 SYM fields. We first derive appropriate massive-particle boundary conditions for the string scattering worldsheets. We then find an exact worldsheet which corresponds to the scattering of two massive quarks and two massless gluons and extract from this the associated scattering amplitude. We also find the worldsheet and amplitude for the scattering of four massive quarks. Our worldsheet solutions reduce to the four massless gluon solution of Alday and Maldacena in the limit of zero quark mass. The amplitudes we compute can also be interpreted in terms of 2-2 scattering involving gluons and massive W-bosons.
hep-th↗
All 4-dimensional static, spherically symmetric, 2-charge abelian Kaluza-Klein black holes and their CFT duals
We derive the dual CFT Virasoro algebras from the algebra of conserved diffeomorphism charges, for a large class of abelian Kaluza-Klein black holes. Under certain conditions, such as non-vanishing electric and magnetic monopole charges, the Kaluza-Klein black holes have a Reissner-Nordstrom space-time structure. For the non-extremal charged Kaluza-Klein black holes, we use the uplifted 6d pure gravity solutions to construct a set of Killing horizon preserving diffeomorphisms. For the (non-supersymmetric) extremal black holes, we take the NENH limit, and construct a one-parameter family of diffeomorphisms which preserve the Hamiltonian constraints at spatial infinity. In each case we evaluate the algebra of conserved diffeomorphism charges following Barnich, Brandt and Compere, who used a cohomological approach, and Silva, who employed a covariant-Lagrangian formalism. At the Killing horizon, it is only Silva's algebra which acquires a central charge extension, and which enables us to recover the Bekenstein-Hawking black hole entropy from the Cardy formula. For the NENH geometry, the extremal black hole entropy is obtained only when the free parameter of the diffeomorphism generating vector fields is chosen such that the central terms of the two algebras are in agreement.
hep-th↗
Analytic Scattering Amplitudes for QCD
By analytically continuing QCD scattering amplitudes through specific complexified momenta, one can study and learn about the nature and the consequences of factorization and unitarity. In some cases, when coupled with the largest time equation and gauge invariance requirement, this approach leads to recursion relations, which greatly simplify the construction of multi-gluon scattering amplitudes. The setting for this discussion is in the space-cone gauge.
hep-th↗
The Space-Cone Gauge, Lorentz Invariance and On-Shell Recursion for One-Loop Yang-Mills amplitudes
Recursion relations are succinctly obtained for $(++... +)$ and $(-++... +)$ amplitudes in the context of the space-cone gauge in QCD. We rely on the helicity symmetry of the problems to dictate our choices of reference twistors and the momentum shifts to complexify the amplitudes. Of great importance is the power of gauge Lorentz invariance, which is enough to determine the soft factors in the latter cases.
hep-th↗
Bubbling AdS and droplet descriptions of BPS geometries in IIB supergravity
This paper focuses on supergravity duals of BPS states in N=4 super Yang-Mills. In order to describe these duals, we begin with a sequence of breathing mode reductions of IIB supergravity: first on S^3, then S^3 x S^1, and finally on S^3 x S^1 x CP^1. We then follow with a complete supersymmetry analysis, yielding 1/8, 1/4 and 1/2 BPS configurations, respectively (where in the last step we take the Hopf fibration of S^3). The 1/8 BPS geometries, which have an S^3 isometry and are time-fibered over a six-dimensional base, are determined by solving a non-linear equation for the Kahler metric on the base. Similarly, the 1/4 BPS configurations have an S^3 x S^1 isometry and a four-dimensional base, whose Kahler metric obeys another non-linear, Monge-Ampere type equation. Despite the non-linearity of the problem, we develop a universal bubbling AdS description of these geometries by focusing on the boundary conditions which ensure their regularity. In the 1/8 BPS case, we find that the S^3 cycle shrinks to zero size on a five-dimensional locus inside the six-dimensional base. Enforcing regularity of the full solution requires that the interior of a smooth, generally disconnected five-dimensional surface be removed from the base. The AdS_5 x S^5 ground state corresponds to excising the interior of an S^5, while the 1/8 BPS excitations correspond to deformations (including topology change) of the S^5 and/or the excision of additional droplets from the base. In the case of 1/4 BPS configurations, by enforcing regularity conditions, we identify three-dimensional surfaces inside the four-dimensional base which separate the regions where the S^3 shrinks to zero size from those where the S^1 shrinks.
hep-th↗
Gauged (2,2) Sigma Models and Generalized Kahler Geometry
We gauge the (2,2) supersymmetric non-linear sigma model whose target space has bihermitian structure (g, B, J_{\pm}) with noncommuting complex structures. The bihermitian geometry is realized by a sigma model which is written in terms of (2,2) semi-chiral superfields. We discuss the moment map, from the perspective of the gauged sigma model action and from the integrability condition for a Hamiltonian vector field. We show that for a concrete example, the SU(2) x U(1) WZNW model, as well as for the sigma models with almost product structure, the moment map can be used together with the corresponding Killing vector to form an element of T+T* which lies in the eigenbundle of the generalized almost complex structure. Lastly, we discuss T-duality at the level of a (2,2) sigma model involving semi-chiral superfields and present an explicit example.
hep-th↗
T-duality, quotients and generalized Kahler geometry
In this paper we reopen the discussion of gauging the two-dimensional off-shell (2,2) supersymmetric sigma models written in terms of semichiral superfields. The associated target space geometry of this particular sigma model is generalized Kahler (or bi-hermitean with two non-commuting complex structures). The gauging of the isometries of the sigma model is now done by coupling the semichiral superfields to the new (2,2) semichiral vector multiplet. We show that the two moment maps together with a third function form the complete set of three Killing potentials which are associated with this gauging. We show that the Killing potentials lead to the generalized moment maps defined in the context of twisted generalized Kahler geometry. Next we address the question of the T-duality map, while keeping the (2,2) supersymmetry manifest. Using the new vector superfield in constructing the duality functional, under T-duality we swap a pair of left and right semichiral superfields by a pair of chiral and twisted chiral multiplets. We end with a discussion on quotient construction.
hep-th↗