2006/05/31 by Tameem Albash, Veselin G. Filev, Veselin Filev +2
Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Brane #Combinatorics #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Gauge theory #Mathematical physics #Order (exchange) #Particle physics #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #Phase transition #Physics #Quantum mechanics #Quark #String (physics) #Topology (electrical circuits) #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.77.066004
published as Phys.Rev.D77:066004,2008 · 13 pages, three multi-component eps figures, LaTeX (V2: refs added, figs improved. V3: refs added, discussion of meson spectrum improved)
arxiv created 2007/08/05 · openalex publication_date 2008/03/06 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
In studying the dynamics of large Nc, SU(Nc) gauge theory at finite temperature with fundamental quark flavors in the quenched approximation, we observe a first order phase transition. A quark condensate forms at finite quark mass, and the value of the condensate varies smoothly with the quark mass for generic regions in parameter space. At a particular value of the quark mass, there is a finite discontinuity in the condensate's vacuum expectation value, corresponding to a first order phase transition. We study the gauge theory via its string dual formulation using the AdS/CFT conjecture, the string dual being the near-horizon geometry of Nc D3-branes at finite temperature, AdS5\mathrm\text\ensuremath-Schwarzschild\ifmmode×\else\texttimes\fiS5, probed by a D7-brane. The D7-brane has topology ℝ4\ifmmode×\else\texttimes\fiS3\ifmmode×\else\texttimes\fiS1 and allowed solutions correspond to either the S3 or the S1 shrinking away in the interior of the geometry. The phase transition represents a jump between branches of solutions having these two distinct D-brane topologies. The transition also appears in the meson spectrum.