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Matthias Ihl

Publications and source records attributed to Matthias Ihl.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2017

A universal order parameter for Inverse Magnetic Catalysis

We revisit the chiral transition in the finite density Sakai-Sugimoto model and find that, at fixed temperature $T$, the magnetisation near the critical line $μ_c(B)$ acts as an order parameter to distinguish Inverse Magnetic Catalysis from Magnetic Catalysis. Moreover, we propose a universal relation between $μ_c (B)$ and the magnetisation that allows us to predict the behaviour of the former from the behaviour of the latter. We find that a similar relation holds, at fixed chemical potential $μ$, for the critical line $T_c(B)$. Our results are obtained by investigating a fully numerical solution to the relevant equations. At low temperatures our results reduce to those obtained by Preis, Rebhan and Schmitt [JHEP 1103 (2011) 033], based on a semi-analytic approximation.

hep-th↗
arXiv2016

Holographic anyonization: A systematic approach

Anyons have garnered substantial interest theoretically as well as experimentally. Due to the intricate nature of their interactions, however, even basic notions such as the equation of state for any kind of anyon gas have eluded a profound understanding so far. Using holography as a guiding principle, we propose a general method for an alternative quantization of electromagnetic degrees of freedom in the gravitational dual to obtain an effective physical description of strongly correlated anyonic systems. We then demonstrate the application of this prescription in a toy model of an anyonic fluid at finite charge density and magnetic field, dual to a dyonic black brane in AdS_4, and compute the equation of state and various transport coefficients explicitly.

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arXiv2014

Flavoured Large N Gauge Theory on a Compact Space with an External Magnetic Field

The phase structure of flavoured N=2 SYM on a three sphere in an external magnetic field is studied. The pairing effect of the magnetic field competes with the dissociating effect of the Casimir free energy, leading to an interesting phase structure of confined and deconfined phases separated by a critical curve of a first order quantum phase transition. At vanishing magnetic field the phase transition is of a third order. For sufficiently strong magnetic field, the only stable phase is the confined phase and magnetic catalysis of chiral symmetry breaking is realized. The meson spectra of the theory exhibit Zeeman splitting and level crossing and feature a finite jump at the phase transition between the confined and deconfined phases. At strong magnetic field the ground state has a massless mode corresponding to the Goldstone boson associated with the spontaneously broken U(1) R-symmetry analogous to the eta' meson in QCD.

hep-th↗
arXiv2014

Holographic zero sound at finite temperature in the Sakai-Sugimoto model

In this paper, we study the fate of the holographic zero sound mode at finite temperature and non-zero baryon density in the deconfined phase of the Sakai-Sugimoto model of holographic QCD. We establish the existence of such a mode for a wide range of temperatures and investigate the dispersion relation, quasi-normal modes, and spectral functions of the collective excitations in four different regimes, namely, the collisionless quantum, collisionless thermal, and two distinct hydrodynamic regimes. For sufficiently high temperatures, the zero sound completely disappears, and the low energy physics is dominated by an emergent diffusive mode. We compare our findings to Landau-Fermi liquid theory and to other holographic models.

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arXiv2014

Holographic Bilayer/Monolayer Phase Transitions

In the present work, we discuss the phase structure of bilayer and monolayer phases in the (2+1)-dimensional defect field theory whose gravity dual is obtained by embedding D5/anti-D5 probe flavour branes in the singular conifold. We study in detail the embedding equations and compare the free energies of the resulting configurations at non-zero temperature and external magnetic field perpendicular to the defects. Moreover, we analyse the meson spectrum and confirm the stability of the single bilayer solution.

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arXiv2013

A Novel (2+1)-Dimensional Model of Chiral Symmetry Breaking

We propose a new model of flavour chiral symmetry breaking in a (2+1)-dimensional defect gauge theory of strongly coupled fermions by introducing probe D5/anti-D5-flavour branes on the conifold. After working out the flavour brane embeddings at zero temperature, we thoroughly investigate the spectra of small fluctuations on the world volume of the flavour branes (meson spectrum) and conclude that they are free of tachyons. Thus the proposed probe brane embedding is stable. Moreover, we introduce finite temperature and an external magnetic field and study the thermodynamics of the resulting configurations. Namely, we compute the free energies, entropies, heat capacities and magnetisations. The results are used to establish a detailed phase diagram of the model. We find that the effect of magnetic catalysis of chiral symmetry breaking is realised in our model and show that the meson-melting phase transition coincides with the chiral symmetry breaking phase transition. Furthermore, we show that the model is in a diamagnetic phase.

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arXiv2013

Dynamics of Non-supersymmetric Flavours

We investigate the effect of the back-reaction by non-supersymmetric probes in the Kuperstein-Sonnenschein model. In the limit where the back-reaction is small, we discuss physical properties of the back-reacted geometry. We further introduce additional probe flavours in this back-reacted geometry and study in detail the phase structure of this sector when a constant electromagnetic field or a chemical potential are present. We find that the Landau pole, which serves as the UV cut-off of the background geometry, also serves as an important scale in the corresponding thermodynamics of the additional flavour sector. We note that since these additional probe flavours are indistinguishable from the back-reacting flavours, the results we obtain point to a much richer phase structure of the system.

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arXiv2012

Towards Relativistic Skyrmions

We revisit baryons in the Skyrme model. Starting from static baryons in the helicity eigenstates, we generalize their wavefunctions to the non-static and relativistic regime. A new representation for gamma matrices in the soliton collective space is constructed and the corresponding Dirac equation is obtained. As an example, we draw consideration on how to apply this new representation on the calculus of vector current vacuum expectation values for baryon states of spin and isospin half and arbitrary momenta and we show how elastic form factors can be derived.

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arXiv2012

Production of negative parity baryons in the holographic Sakai-Sugimoto model

We extend our investigation of resonance production in the Sakai-Sugimoto model to the case of negative parity baryon resonances. Using holographic techniques we extract the generalized Dirac and Pauli baryon form factors as well as the helicity amplitudes for these baryonic states. Identifying the first negative parity resonance with the experimentally observed S_{11}(1535), we find reasonable agreement with experimental data from the JLab-CLAS collaboration. We also estimate the contribution of negative parity baryons to the proton structure functions.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2012

Generalized baryon form factors and proton structure functions in the Sakai-Sugimoto model

We investigate the production of positive parity baryon resonances in proton electromagnetic scattering within the Sakai-Sugimoto model. The latter is a string model for the non-perturbative regime of large $N_c$ QCD. Using holographic techniques we calculate the generalized Dirac and Pauli form factors that describe resonance production. We use these results to estimate the contribution of resonance production to the proton structure functions. Interestingly, we find an approximate Callan-Gross relation for the structure functions in a regime of intermediate values of the Bjorken variable.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2012

Back-reaction of Non-supersymmetric Probes: Phase Transition and Stability

We consider back-reaction by non-supersymmetric D7/anti-D7 probe branes in the Kuperstein-Sonnenschein model at finite temperature. Using the smearing technique, we obtain an analytical solution for the back-reacted background to leading order in N_f/N_c. This back-reaction explicitly breaks the conformal invariance and introduces a dimension 6 operator in the dual field theory which is an irrelevant deformation of the original conformal field theory. We further probe this back-reacted background by introducing an additional set of probe brane/anti-brane. This additional probe sector undergoes a chiral phase transition at finite temperature, which is absent when the back-reaction vanishes. We investigate the corresponding phase diagram and the thermodynamics associated with this phase transition. We also argue that additional probes do not suffer from any instability caused by the back-reaction, which suggests that this system is stable beyond the probe limit.

hep-th↗
arXiv2012

Relativistic baryons in the Skyrme model revisited

We investigate and revisit certain aspects of relativistic baryons in the Skyrme model. Starting from static baryons in the helicity eigenstates, we generalize their wavefunctions to the non-static and relativistic regime. A new representation for gamma matrices in the SU(2) collective space is constructed and the corresponding Dirac equation is obtained. Furthermore, we extend the analysis of Adkins et al. concerning vector current vacuum expectation values for baryon states to arbitrary momenta and calculate baryon elastic form factors in a general framework exhibiting vector meson dominance.

hep-th↗
arXiv2011

Scalar and vector mesons of flavor chiral symmetry breaking in the Klebanov-Strassler background

Recently, Dymarsky, Kuperstein and Sonnenschein constructed an embedding of flavor D7- and anti-D7-branes in the Klebanov-Strassler geometry that breaks the supersymmetry of the background, yet is stable. In this article, we study in detail the spectrum of vector mesons in this new model of flavor chiral symmetry breaking and commence an analytical analysis of the scalar mesons in this setup.

hep-th↗
arXiv2011

Fuzzy Scalar Field Theory as Matrix Quantum Mechanics

We study the phase diagram of scalar field theory on a three dimensional Euclidean spacetime whose spatial component is a fuzzy sphere. The corresponding model is an ordinary one-dimensional matrix model deformed by terms involving fixed external matrices. These terms can be approximated by multitrace expressions using a group theoretical method developed recently. The resulting matrix model is accessible to the standard techniques of matrix quantum mechanics.

hep-th↗
arXiv2010

Pion and Vector Meson Form Factors in the Kuperstein-Sonnenschein holographic model

We study phenomenological aspects of the holographic model of chiral symmetry breaking recently introduced by Kuperstein and Sonnenschein (KS). As a first step, we calculate the spectrum of vector and axial-vector mesons in the KS model. We numerically compute various coupling constants of the mesons and pions. Our analysis indicates that vector meson dominance is realized in this model. The pion, vector meson and axial-vector meson form factors are obtained and studied in detail. We find good agreement with QCD results. In particular, the pion form factor closely matches available experimental data.

hep-th↗
arXiv2007

New Supergravity Backgrounds Dual to N=1 SQCD-like Theories with N_f=2N_c

We present new supergravity backgrounds generated by N_c D5-branes, wrapping the S^2 of the resolved conifold, in the presence of N_f = 2 N_c smeared flavor D5-branes. The smearing allows us to take their backreaction on the geometry into account. We discuss the consistency, stability, and supersymmetry of these types of setups. We find near horizon geometries that we expect to be supergravity duals of SQCD-like theories with N_f= 2N_c. From these backgrounds we numerically extract rectangular Wilson loops and beta functions of the dual field theory for the regime where our approximations are valid.

hep-th↗
arXiv2007

Toroidal Orientifolds in IIA with General NS-NS Fluxes

Type IIA toroidal orientifolds offer a promising toolkit for model builders, especially when one includes not only the usual fluxes from NS-NS and R-R field strengths, but also fluxes that are T-dual to the NS-NS three-form flux. These new ingredients are known as metric fluxes and non-geometric fluxes, and can help stabilize moduli or can lead to other new features. In this paper we study two approaches to these constructions, by effective field theory or by toroidal fibers twisted over a toroidal base. Each approach leads us to important observations, in particular the presence of D-terms in the four-dimensional effective potential in some cases, and a more subtle treatment of the quantization of the general NS-NS fluxes. Though our methods are general, we illustrate each approach on the example of an orientifold of T^6/Z_4.

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