Dual QFT Research Articles

Supersymmetric AdS solitons and the interconnection of different vacua of N\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\mathcal{N} $$\\end{document} = 4 Super Yang-Mills

We find AdS soliton solutions in 5-dimensional gauged supergravity, obtained from the S5 compactification of type IIB, with a dilaton saturating the Breitenlohner-Freedman bound. The solutions depend on the value of the periodicity of an S1 cycle and the boundary values for two U(1) gauge fields, and give a scalar VEV in the dual field theory. At certain values of the gauge sources we have supersymmetric solutions, corresponding to supersymmetric flows, which are a deformation of the Coulomb Branch flow in N\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\mathcal{N} $$\\end{document} = 4 SYM. The solutions parameterize quantum phase transitions between a discrete spectrum phase, a continuous above a mass gap phase, and a continuous without a mass gap phase, in 2+1 dimensions. We analyze the phase diagram in terms of the QFT sources and we find that for every value for them, there are always two branches of supergravity solutions. We find that these two branches of solitons correspond to two possible vacua existing in the dual QFT when fermions are anti-periodic on an S1. We describe the interconnection of these states in the QFT at strong ’t Hooft coupling in the large N limit. In 10 dimensions, our solutions are related to deformations of D3-brane distributions.

Revisiting Coleman-de Luccia transitions in the AdS regime using holography

Coleman-de Luccia processes for AdS to AdS decays in Einstein-scalar theories are studied. Such tunnelling processes are interpreted as vev-driven holographic RG flows of a quantum field theory on de Sitter space-time. These flows do not exist for generic scalar potentials, which is the holographic formulation of the fact that gravity can act to stabilise false AdS vacua. The existence of Coleman-de Luccia tunnelling solutions in a potential with a false AdS vacuum is found to be tied to the existence of exotic RG flows in the same potential. Such flows are solutions where the flow skips possible fixed points or reverses direction in the coupling. This connection is employed to construct explicit potentials that admit Coleman-de Luccia instantons in AdS and to study the associated tunnelling solutions. Thin-walled instantons are observed to correspond to dual field theories with a parametrically large value of the dimension ∆ for the operator dual to the scalar field, casting doubt on the attainability of this regime in holography. From the boundary perspective, maximally symmetric instantons describe the probability of symmetry breaking of the dual QFT in de Sitter. It is argued that, even when such instantons exist, they do not imply an instability of the same theory on flat space or on R × S3.

Holography for the very early universe and the classic puzzles of hot big bang cosmology

We show that standard puzzles of hot Big Bang cosmology that motivated the introduction of cosmological inflation, such as the smoothness and horizon problem, the flatness problem and the relic problem are also solved by holographic models for very early universe based on perturbative three dimensional QFT. In the holographic setup, cosmic evolution is mapped to inverse renormalization group (RG) flow of the dual QFT, and the resolution of the puzzles relies on properties of the RG flow.

Understanding the holographic principle via RG flow

This is a review of some recent works which demonstrate how the classical equations of gravity in AdS themselves hold the key to understand their holographic origin in the form of a strongly coupled large N QFT whose algebra of local operators can be generated by a few (single-trace) elements. I discuss how this can be realized by reformulating Einstein’s equations in AdS in the form of a nonperturbative RG flow that further leads to a new approach toward constructing strongly interacting QFTs. In particular, the RG flow can self-determine the UV data that are otherwise obtained by solving classical gravity equations and demanding that the solutions do not have naked singularities. For a concrete demonstration, I focus on the hydrodynamic limit in which case this RG flow connects the AdS/CFT correspondence with the membrane paradigm, and also reproduces the known values of the dual QFT transport coefficients.

Brane solutions sourced by a scalar with vanishing potential and classification of scalar branes

We derive exact brane solutions of minimally coupled Einstein-Maxwell-scalar gravity in d+2 dimensions with a vanishing scalar potential. The solutions are conformal to the Lifshitz spacetime and have several properties, which make them interesting for holographic applications. In particular, the dual QFT is characterized by hyperscaling violation. We show that our solutions, together with the AdS brane and the domain wall sourced by an exponential potential, give the complete list of scalar branes sourced by a generic potential having simple (scale-covariant) scaling symmetries. This allows us to give a complete classification of both simple and interpolating brane solution of minimally coupled Einstein-Maxwell-scalar gravity, which may be very useful for holographic applications.

Free energy of a Lovelock holographic superconductor

We study thermodynamics of black hole solutions in Lanczos-Lovelock AdS gravity in d+1 dimensions coupled to nonlinear electrodynamics and a Stueckelberg scalar field. This class of theories is used in the context of gauge/gravity duality to describe a high-temperature superconductor in d dimensions. Larger number of coupling constants in the gravitational side is necessary to widen a domain of validity of physical quantities in a dual QFT. We regularize the gravitational action and find the finite conserved quantities for a planar black hole with scalar hair. Then we derive the quantum statistical relation in the Euclidean sector of the theory, and obtain the exact formula for the free energy of the superconductor in the holographic quantum field theory. Our result is analytic and it includes the effects of backreaction of the gravitational field. We further discuss on how this formula could be used to analyze second order phase transitions through the discontinuities of the free energy, in order to classify holographic superconductors in terms of the parameters in the theory.

Lifshitz from AdS at finite temperature and top down models

We construct analytically an asymptotically Lifshitz black brane with dynamical exponent z=1+epsilon^2 in an Einstein-Proca model, where epsilon is a small parameter. In previous work we showed that the holographic dual QFT is a deformation of a CFT by the time component of a vector operator and the parameter epsilon is the corresponding deformation parameter. In the black brane background this operator additionally acquires a vacuum expectation value. We explain how the QFT Ward identity associated with Lifshitz invariance leads to a conserved mass and compute analytically the thermodynamic quantities showing that they indeed take the form implied by Lifshitz invariance. In the second part of the paper we consider top down Lifshitz models with dynamical exponent close to one and show that they can be understood in terms of vector deformations of conformal field theories. However, in all known cases, both the conformal field theory and its Lifshitz deformations have modes that violate the Breitenlohner-Freedman bound.

Self-duality from new massive gravity holography

The holographic renormalization group (RG) flows in certain self-dual two dimensional QFT’s models are studied. They are constructed as holographic duals to specific New Massive 3d Gravity (NMG) models coupled to scalar matter with “partially self-dual” superpotentials. The standard holographic RG constructions allow us to derive the exact form of their β-functions in terms of the corresponding NMG’s domain walls solutions. By imposing invariance of the free energy, the central function and of the anomalous dimensions under specific matter field’s duality transformation, we have found the conditions on the superpotentials of two different NMG’s models, such that their dual 2d QFT’s are related by a simple strong-weak coupling transformation.

Holography for inflation using conformal perturbation theory

We provide a precise and quantitative holographic description of a class of inflationary slow-roll models. The dual QFT is a deformation of a three-dimensional CFT by a nearly marginal operator, which, in the models we consider, generates an RG flow to a nearby IR fixed point. These models describe hilltop inflation, where the inflaton rolls from a local maximum of the potential in the infinite past (corresponding to the IR fixed point of the dual QFT) to reach a nearby local minimum in the infinite future (corresponding to the UV of the dual QFT). Through purely holographic means, we compute the spectra and bispectra of scalar and tensor cosmological perturbations. The QFT correlators to which these observables map holographically may be calculated using conformal perturbation theory, even when the dual QFT is strongly coupled. Both the spectra and the bispectra may be expressed this way in terms of CFT correlators that are fixed, up to a few constants, by conformal invariance. The form of slow-roll inflationary correlators is thus determined by the perturbative breaking of the de Sitter isometries away from the fixed point. Setting the constants to their values obtained by AdS/CFT at the fixed point, we find exact agreement with known expressions for the slow-roll power spectra and non-Gaussianities.

Holographic predictions for cosmological 3-point functions

AbstractWe present the holographic predictions for cosmological 3-point correlators, involving both scalar and tensor modes, for a universe which started in a non-geometric holographic phase. Holographic formulae relate the cosmological 3-point functions to stress tensor correlation functions of a holographically dual three-dimensional non-gravitational QFT. We compute these correlators at 1-loop order for a theory containing massless scalars, fermions and gauge fields, and present an extensive analysis of the constraints due to Ward identities showing that they uniquely determine the correlators up to a few constants. We define shapes for all cosmological bispectra and compare the holographic shapes to the slow-roll ones, finding that some are distinguishable while others, perhaps surprisingly, are not. In particular, for three gravitons, we are able to recover the slow-roll shapes exactly.

Lorentzian AdS geometries, wormholes, and holography

We investigate the structure of two point functions for the QFT dual to an asymptotically Lorentzian AdS-wormhole. The bulk geometry is a solution of 5-dimensional second order Einstein Gauss Bonnet gravity and causally connects two asymptotically AdS space times. We revisit the GKPW prescription for computing two-point correlation functions for dual QFT operators O in Lorentzian signature and we propose to express the bulk fields in terms of the independent boundary values phi_0^\pm at each of the two asymptotic AdS regions, along the way we exhibit how the ambiguity of normalizable modes in the bulk, related to initial and final states, show up in the computations. The independent boundary values are interpreted as sources for dual operators O^\pm and we argue that, apart from the possibility of entanglement, there exists a coupling between the degrees of freedom leaving at each boundary. The AdS_(1+1) geometry is also discussed in view of its similar boundary structure. Based on the analysis, we propose a very simple geometric criterium to distinguish coupling from entanglement effects among the two set of degrees of freedom associated to each of the disconnected parts of the boundary.

Warped deformed throats have faster (electroweak) phase transitions

We study the dynamics of the finite-temperature phase transition for warped Randall-Sundrum(RS)-like throat models related to the Klebanov-Tseytlin solution. We find that, for infrared branes stabilized near the tip of the throat, the bounce action has a mild N^2 dependence, where N(y) \sim [M_5 L(y)]^{3/2} is the effective number of degrees of freedom of the holographic dual QFT, and where L(y) is the local curvature radius, which decreases in the infrared. In addition, the bounce action is not enhanced by large numbers. These features allow the transition to successfully complete over a wider parameter range than for Goldberger-Wise stabilized RS models. Due to the increase of L(y) in the ultraviolet, the throat has a reliable gravitational description even when the number of infrared degrees of freedom is small. We also comment on aspects of the thermal phase transition in Higgsless models, where the gauge symmetry breaking is achieved via boundary conditions. Such models include orbifold-GUT models and the Higgsless electroweak symmetry breaking theories of Csaki et al., with Standard Model gauge fields living in the bulk.

Kaluza-Klein holography

We construct a holographic map between asymptotically AdS_5 x S^5 solutions of 10d supergravity and vacuum expectation values of gauge invariant operators of the dual QFT. The ingredients that enter in the construction are (i) gauge invariant variables so that the KK reduction is independent of any choice of gauge fixing; (ii) the non-linear KK reduction map from 10 to 5 dimensions (constructed perturbatively in the number of fields); (iii) application of holographic renormalization. A non-trivial role in the last step is played by extremal couplings. This map allows one to reliably compute vevs of operators dual to any KK fields. As an application we consider a Coulomb branch solution and compute the first two non-trivial vevs, involving operators of dimension 2 and 4, and reproduce the field theory result, in agreement with non-renormalization theorems. This constitutes the first quantitative test of the gravity/gauge theory duality away from the conformal point involving a vev of an operator dual to a KK field (which is not one of the gauged supergravity fields).

Cut-off QFT and black hole entropy

We clarify the relationship between black hole entropy and the number of degrees of freedom in the dual QFT with a cut-off. We show that simple gravity arguments predict the correct cut-off procedure.

Scheme-dependence of holographic conformal anomaly in d5 gauged supergravity with non-trivial bulk potential

Bosonic sector of d5 gauged supergravity with specific parametrization of full scalar coset is considered (multi-dilaton gravity). Using holographic RG in the form suggested by de Boer–Verlinde–Verlinde the holographic d4 conformal anomaly (in the sector of curvature invariants) is found when bulk potential is not constant. Its comparison with the earlier calculation done in the scheme where expansion of metric and dilaton over radial coordinate of AdS space is used demonstrates scheme dependence of holographic conformal anomaly. In AdS/CFT correspondence where dilatons play role of coupling constants it coincides with multi-loop conformal anomaly which depends on regularization scheme in interacting dual QFT. Hence, scheme dependence of holographic conformal anomaly is consistent with dual QFT expectations.

A note on holographic Ward identities

In this note we show how Ward identities may be derived for a quantum field theory dual of a string theory using the AdS/CFT correspondence. In particular associated with any gauge symmetry of the bulk supergravity theory there is a corresponding constraint equation. Writing this constraint in Hamilton–Jacobi form gives a generating functional for Ward identities in the dual QFT. We illustrate the method by considering various examples.