Searcharxiv⌕ Search

arXiv subjects

Laurence G. Yaffe

Publications and source records attributed to Laurence G. Yaffe.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
arXiv2012

Holographic realization of large-Nc orbifold equivalence with non-zero chemical potential

Recently, it has been suggested that large-Nc orbifold equivalences may be applicable to certain theories with chemical potentials, including QCD, in certain portions of their phase diagram. When valid, such an equivalence offers the possibility of relating large-Nc QCD at non-zero baryon chemical potential, a theory with a complex fermion determinant, to a related theory whose fermion determinant is real and positive. In this paper, we provide a test of this large Nc equivalence using a holographic realization of a supersymmetric theory with baryon chemical potential and a related theory with isospin chemical potential. We show that the two strongly-coupled, large-Nc theories are equivalent in a large region of the phase diagram.

hep-th↗
arXiv2011

Screening in strongly coupled N=2* supersymmetric Yang-Mills plasma

Using gauge-gravity duality, we extend thermodynamic studies and present results for thermal screening masses in strongly coupled N=2* supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory. This non-conformal theory is a mass deformation of maximally supersymmetric N=4 gauge theory. Results are obtained for the entropy density, pressure, specific heat, equation of state, and screening masses, down to previously unexplored low temperatures. The temperature dependence of screening masses in various symmetry channels, which characterize the longest length scales over which thermal fluctuations in the non-Abelian plasma are correlated, is examined and found to be asymptotically linear in the low temperature regime.

hep-th↗
arXiv2010

Large-N volume independence in conformal and confining gauge theories

Consequences of large $N$ volume independence are examined in conformal and confining gauge theories. In the large $N$ limit, gauge theories compactified on $\R^{d-k} \times (S^1)^k$ are independent of the $S^1$ radii, provided the theory has unbroken center symmetry. In particular, this implies that a large $N$ gauge theory which, on $\R^d$, flows to an IR fixed point, retains the infinite correlation length and other scale invariant properties of the decompactified theory even when compactified on $\R^{d-k} \times (S^1)^k$. In other words, finite volume effects are $1/N$ suppressed. In lattice formulations of vector-like theories, this implies that numerical studies to determine the boundary between confined and conformal phases may be performed on one-site lattice models. In $N=4$ supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory, the center symmetry realization is a matter of choice: the theory on $\R^{4-k}\times (S^1)^k$ has a moduli space which contains points with all possible realizations of center symmetry. Large $N$ QCD with massive adjoint fermions and one or two compactified dimensions has a rich phase structure with an infinite number of phase transitions coalescing in the zero radius limit.

hep-th↗
arXiv2010

Thermodynamics of SU(2) N=2 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory

The thermodynamics of four-dimensional SU(2) N=2 super-Yang-Mills theory is examined in both high and low temperature regimes. At low temperatures, compelling evidence is found for two distinct equilibrium states related by a spontaneously broken discrete R-symmetry. These equilibrium states exist because the quantum moduli space of the theory has two singular points where extra massless states appear. At high temperature, a unique R-symmetry-preserving equilibrium state is found. Discrepancies with previous results in the literature are explained.

hep-th↗
arXiv2009

Critical Exponents from AdS/CFT with Flavor

We use the AdS/CFT correspondence to study the thermodynamics of massive N=2 supersymmetric hypermultiplet flavor fields coupled to N=4 supersymmetric SU(Nc) Yang-Mills theory, formulated on curved four-manifolds, in the limits of large Nc and large 't Hooft coupling. The gravitational duals are probe D-branes in global thermal AdS. These D-branes may undergo a topology-changing transition in the bulk. The D-brane embeddings near the point of the topology change exhibit a scaling symmetry. The associated scaling exponents can be either real- or complex-valued. Which regime applies depends on the dimensionality of a collapsing submanifold in the critical embedding. When the scaling exponents are complex-valued, a first-order transition associated with the flavor fields appears in the dual field theory. Real scaling exponents are expected to be associated with a continuous transition in the dual field theory. For one example with real exponents, the D7-brane, we study the transition in detail. We find two field theory observables that diverge at the critical point, and we compute the associated critical exponents. We also present analytic and numerical evidence that the transition expresses itself in the meson spectrum as a non-analyticity at the critical point. We argue that the transition we study is a true phase transition only when the 't Hooft coupling is strictly infinite.

hep-th↗
arXiv2009

Light quark energy loss in strongly-coupled N = 4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills plasma

We compute the penetration depth of a light quark moving through a large $N_c$, strongly coupled $\mathcal N = 4$ supersymmetric Yang-Mills plasma using gauge/gravity duality and a combination of analytic and numerical techniques. We find that the maximum distance a quark with energy $E$ can travel through a plasma is given by $Δx(E) = (\mathcal C/T) (E/T \sqrtλ)^{{1}/{3}}$ with $\mathcal C \approx 0.5$.

hep-th↗
arXiv2008

Center-stabilized Yang-Mills theory: confinement and large $N$ volume independence

We examine a double trace deformation of SU(N) Yang-Mills theory which, for large $N$ and large volume, is equivalent to unmodified Yang-Mills theory up to $O(1/N^2)$ corrections. In contrast to the unmodified theory, large $N$ volume independence is valid in the deformed theory down to arbitrarily small volumes. The double trace deformation prevents the spontaneous breaking of center symmetry which would otherwise disrupt large $N$ volume independence in small volumes. For small values of $N$, if the theory is formulated on $\R^3 \times S^1$ with a sufficiently small compactification size $L$, then an analytic treatment of the non-perturbative dynamics of the deformed theory is possible. In this regime, we show that the deformed Yang-Mills theory has a mass gap and exhibits linear confinement. Increasing the circumference $L$ or number of colors $N$ decreases the separation of scales on which the analytic treatment relies. However, there are no order parameters which distinguish the small and large radius regimes. Consequently, for small $N$ the deformed theory provides a novel example of a locally four-dimensional pure gauge theory in which one has analytic control over confinement, while for large $N$ it provides a simple fully reduced model for Yang-Mills theory. The construction is easily generalized to QCD and other QCD-like theories.

hep-th↗
arXiv2007

The stress-energy tensor of a quark moving through a strongly-coupled N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills plasma: comparing hydrodynamics and AdS/CFT

The stress-energy tensor of a quark moving through a strongly coupled N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills plasma is evaluated using gauge/string duality. The accuracy with which the resulting wake, in position space, is reproduced by hydrodynamics is examined. Remarkable agreement is found between hydrodynamics and the complete result down to distances less than 2/T away from the quark. In performing the gravitational analysis, we use a relatively simple formulation of the bulk to boundary problem in which the linearized Einstein field equations are fully decoupled. Our analysis easily generalizes to other sources in the bulk.

hep-th↗
arXiv2007

Debye screening in strongly coupled N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills plasma

Using the AdS/CFT correspondence, we examine the behavior of correlators of Polyakov loops and other operators in N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory at non-zero temperature. The implications for Debye screening in this strongly coupled non-Abelian plasma, and comparisons with available results for thermal QCD, are discussed.

hep-th↗
arXiv2007

Volume independence in large Nc QCD-like gauge theories

Volume independence in large $\Nc$ gauge theories may be viewed as a generalized orbifold equivalence. The reduction to zero volume (or Eguchi-Kawai reduction) is a special case of this equivalence. So is temperature independence in confining phases. In pure Yang-Mills theory, the failure of volume independence for sufficiently small volumes (at weak coupling) due to spontaneous breaking of center symmetry, together with its validity above a critical size, nicely illustrate the symmetry realization conditions which are both necessary and sufficient for large $\Nc$ orbifold equivalence. The existence of a minimal size below which volume independence fails also applies to Yang-Mills theory with antisymmetric representation fermions [QCD(AS)]. However, in Yang-Mills theory with adjoint representation fermions [QCD(Adj)], endowed with periodic boundary conditions, volume independence remains valid down to arbitrarily small size. In sufficiently large volumes, QCD(Adj) and QCD(AS) have a large $\Nc$ ``orientifold'' equivalence, provided charge conjugation symmetry is unbroken in the latter theory. Therefore, via a combined orbifold-orientifold mapping, a well-defined large $\Nc$ equivalence exists between QCD(AS) in large, or infinite, volume and QCD(Adj) in arbitrarily small volume. Since asymptotically free gauge theories, such as QCD(Adj), are much easier to study (analytically or numerically) in small volume, this equivalence should allow greater understanding of large $\Nc$ QCD in infinite volume.

hep-th↗
arXiv2006

Photon and dilepton production in supersymmetric Yang-Mills plasma

By weakly gauging one of the U(1) subgroups of the R-symmetry group, N=4 super-Yang-Mills theory can be coupled to electromagnetism, thus allowing a computation of photon production and related phenomena in a QCD-like non-Abelian plasma at both weak and strong coupling. We compute photon and dilepton emission rates from finite temperature N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills plasma both perturbatively at weak coupling to leading order, and non-perturbatively at strong coupling using the AdS/CFT duality conjecture. Comparison of the photo-emission spectra for N=4 plasma at weak coupling, N=4 plasma at strong coupling, and QCD at weak coupling reveals several systematic trends which we discuss. We also evaluate the electric conductivity of N=4 plasma in the strong coupling limit, and to leading-log order at weak coupling. Current-current spectral functions in the strongly coupled theory exhibit hydrodynamic peaks at small frequency, but otherwise show no structure which could be interpreted as well-defined thermal resonances in the high-temperature phase.

hep-th↗
arXiv2006

(In)validity of large N orientifold equivalence

It has been argued that the bosonic sectors of supersymmetric SU(N) Yang-Mills theory, and of QCD with a single fermion in the antisymmetric (or symmetric) tensor representation, are equivalent in the $N\to\infty$ limit. If true, this correspondence can provide useful insight into properties of real QCD (with fundamental representation fermions), such as predictions [with O(1/N) corrections] for the non-perturbative vacuum energy, the chiral condensate, and a variety of other observables. Several papers asserting to have proven this large N ``orientifold equivalence'' have appeared. By considering theories compactified on $R^3 \times S^1$, we show explicitly that this large N equivalence fails for sufficiently small radius, where our analysis is reliable, due to spontaneous symmetry breaking of charge conjugation symmetry in QCD with an antisymmetric (or symmetric) tensor representation fermion. This theory is also chirally symmetric for small radius, unlike super-Yang-Mills. The situation is completely analogous to large-N equivalences based on orbifold projections: simple symmetry realization conditions are both necessary and sufficient for the validity of the large N equivalence. Whether these symmetry realization conditions are satisfied depends on the specific non-perturbative dynamics of the theory under consideration. Unbroken charge conjugation symmetry is necessary for validity of the large N orientifold equivalence. Whether or not this condition is satisfied on $R^4$ (or $ R^3 \times S^1$ for sufficiently large radius) is not currently known.

hep-th↗
arXiv2006

Phase Diagram of N=4 Super-Yang-Mills Theory with R-Symmetry Chemical Potentials

The phase diagram of large Nc, weakly-coupled N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory on a three-sphere with non-zero chemical potentials is examined. In the zero coupling limit, a transition line in the mu-T plane is found, separating a "confined" phase in which the Polyakov loop has vanishing expectation value from a "deconfined" phase in which this order parameter is non-zero. For non-zero but weak coupling, perturbative methods may be used to construct a dimensionally reduced effective theory valid for sufficiently high temperature. If the maximal chemical potential exceeds a critical value, then the free energy becomes unbounded below and no genuine equilibrium state exists. However, the deconfined plasma phase remains metastable, with a lifetime which grows exponentially with Nc (not Nc^2). This metastable phase persists with increasing chemical potential until a phase boundary, analogous to a spinodal decomposition line, is reached. Beyond this point, no long-lived locally stable quasi-equilibrium state exists. The resulting picture for the phase diagram of the weakly coupled theory is compared with results believed to hold in the strongly coupled limit of the theory, based on the AdS/CFT correspondence and the study of charged black hole thermodynamics. The confinement/deconfinement phase transition at weak coupling is in qualitative agreement with the Hawking-Page phase transition in the gravity dual of the strongly coupled theory. The black hole thermodynamic instability line may be the counterpart of the spinodal decomposition phase boundary found at weak coupling, but no black hole tunneling instability, analogous to the instability of the weakly coupled plasma phase is currently known.

hep-th↗
arXiv2006

Z(3)-symmetric effective theory for SU(3) Yang-Mills theory at high temperature

A three-dimensional effective theory for high temperature SU(3) gauge theory, which maintains the Z(3) center symmetry of the full theory, is constructed. Such a Z(3) invariant effective theory should be applicable to a wider temperature range than the usual effective theory, known as EQCD, which fails to respect the center symmetry. This center-symmetric effective theory can reproduce domain wall and phase transition properties that are not accessible in EQCD. After identifying a convenient class of Z(3) invariant effective theories, we constrain the coefficients of the various terms in the Lagrangian using leading-order matching to EQCD at high temperature, plus matching of domain wall properties in the full theory. We sketch the expected structure of the phase diagram of the effective theory and briefly discuss the prospects of numerical simulations and the addition of quarks.

hep-ph↗