Chiral transition ofN=4super Yang-Mills theory with flavor on a 3-sphere

Abstract

We use the AdS/CFT correspondence to perform a numerical study of a phase transition in strongly-coupled large-${N}_{c}$ $\mathcal{N}=4$ Super-Yang-Mills theory on a 3-sphere coupled to a finite number ${N}_{f}$ of massive $\mathcal{N}=2$ hypermultiplets in the fundamental representation of the gauge group. The gravity dual system is a number ${N}_{f}$ of probe D7-branes embedded in ${\mathrm{AdS}}_{5}\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{S}^{5}$. We draw the phase diagram for this theory in the plane of hypermultiplet mass versus temperature and identify for temperatures above the Hawking-Page deconfinement temperature a first-order phase transition line across which the chiral condensate jumps discontinuously.