Gauge/Gravity Duality Foundations and Applications
Gauge/Gravity Duality Foundations and Applications
Gauge/gravity duality creates new links between quantum theory and gravity. It has led to new concepts in mathematics and physics, and provides new tools for solving problems in many areas of theoretical physics. This book is the first comprehensive textbook on this important topic, enabling graduate students and researchers in string theory and particle, nuclear and condensed matter physics to become acquainted with the subject. Focusing on the fundamental aspects as well as on applications, this textbook guides readers through a thorough explanation of the central concepts of gauge/gravity duality. For the AdS/CFT correspondence, it explains in detail how string theory provides the conjectured map. Generalisations to less symmetric cases of gauge/gravity duality and their applications are then presented, in particular to finite temperature and density, hydrodynamics, QCD-like theories, the quark–gluon plasma and condensed matter sys- tems. The textbook features a large number of exercises, with solutions available online at www.cambridge.org/9781107010345.
Johanna Erdmenger is a Research Group Leader at the Max Planck Institute for Physics (Werner Heisenberg Institute), Munich, Germany, and Honorary Professor at Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich. She is one of the pioneers of applying gauge/gravity duality to elementary particle, nuclear and condensed matter physics.
Martin Ammon is a Junior Professor at Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany, leading a research group on gauge/gravity duality. He was awarded the prestigious Otto Hahn Medal of the Max Planck Society for his Ph.D. thesis on applying gauge/gravity duality to condensed matter physics.
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MARTIN AMMON Friedrich Schiller University, Jena
JOHANNA ERDMENGER Max Planck Institute for Physics, Munich
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Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge. It furthers the University’s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning and research at the highest international levels of excellence.
www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781107010345 © M. Ammon and J. Erdmenger 2015 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2015 Printed in the United Kingdom by TJ International Ltd. Padstow Cornwall A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library Ammon, Martin, 1981- Gauge-gravity duality : foundations and applications / Martin Ammon, Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Johanna Erdmenger, Max Planck Institute for Physics, Munich. pages cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-107-01034-5 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Gauge fields (Physics). 2. Gravity. 3. Holography. 4. Mathematical physics. I. Erdmenger, Johanna. II. Title. QC793.3.G38A56 2015 530.14 35–dc23 2015003328 ISBN 978-1-107-01034-5 Hardback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
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Preface page ix Acknowledgements xiii
Part I Prerequisites 1
1 Elements of field theory 3 1.1 Classical scalar field theory 3 1.2 Symmetries and conserved currents 6 1.3 Quantisation 9 1.4 Wick rotation and statistical mechanics 18 1.5 Regularisation and renormalisation 19 1.6 Dirac fermions 28 1.7 Gauge theory 30 1.8 Symmetries, Ward identities and anomalies 45 1.9 Further reading 48 References 48
2 Elements of gravity 50 2.1 Differential geometry 50 2.2 Einstein’s field equations 65 2.3 Maximally symmetric spacetimes 66 2.4 Black holes 76 2.5 Energy conditions 88 2.6 Further reading 89 References 89
3 Symmetries in quantum field theory 91 3.1 Lorentz and Poincaré symmetry 91 3.2 Conformal symmetry 102 3.3 Supersymmetry 118 3.4 Superconformal symmetry 139 3.5 Further reading 143 References 143 v
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4 Introduction to superstring theory 145 4.1 Bosonic string theory 145 4.2 Superstring theory 156 4.3 Web of dualities 164 4.4 D-branes and other non-perturbative objects 168 4.5 Further reading 174 References 174
Part II Gauge/Gravity Duality 177
5 The AdS/CFT correspondence 179 5.1 The AdS/CFT correspondence: a first glance 180 5.2 D3-branes and their two faces 182 5.3 Field-operator map 189 5.4 Correlation functions 196 5.5 Holographic renormalisation 204 5.6 Wilson loops in N = 4 Super Yang–Mills theory 211 5.7 Further reading 216 References 216
6 Tests of the AdS/CFT correspondence 219 6.1 Correlation function of 1/2 BPS operators 220 6.2 Four-point functions 229 6.3 The conformal anomaly 233 6.4 Further reading 237 References 238
7 Integrability and scattering amplitudes 240 7.1 Integrable structures on the gauge theory side 241 7.2 Integrability on the gravity (string theory) side 248 7.3 BMN limit and classical string configurations 254 7.4 Dual superconformal symmetry 258 7.5 Further reading 271 References 271
8 Further examples of the AdS/CFT correspondence 273 8.1 D3-branes at singularities 273 8.2 M2-branes: AdS4/CFT3 278 8.3 Gravity duals of conformal field theories: further examples 287 8.4 Towards non-conformal field theories 289 8.5 Further reading 294 References 294
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9 Holographic renormalisation group flows 296 9.1 Renormalisation group flows in quantum field theory 296 9.2 Holographic renormalisation group flows 302 9.3 ∗Supersymmetric flows within IIB Supergravity in D = 10 308 9.4 Further reading 323 References 324
10 Duality with D-branes in supergravity 326 10.1 Branes as flavour degrees of freedom 326 10.2 AdS/CFT correspondence with probe branes 331 10.3 D7-brane fluctuations and mesons in N = 2 theory 335 10.4 ∗D3/D5-brane system 340 10.5 Further reading 342 References 343
11 Finite temperature and density 344 11.1 Finite temperature field theory 344 11.2 Gravity dual thermodynamics 352 11.3 Finite density and chemical potential 362 11.4 Further reading 365 References 365
Part III Applications 367
12 Linear response and hydrodynamics 369 12.1 Linear response 370 12.2 Hydrodynamics 380 12.3 Transport coefficients from linear response 384 12.4 Fluid/gravity correspondence 389 12.5 Further reading 396 References 396
13 QCD and holography: confinement and chiral symmetry breaking 399 13.1 Review of QCD 399 13.2 Gauge/gravity duality description of confinement 405 13.3 Chiral symmetry breaking from D7-brane probes 413 13.4 Non-Abelian chiral symmetries: the Sakai–Sugimoto model 421 13.5 AdS/QCD correspondence 426 13.6 Further reading 430 References 431
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14 QCD and holography: finite temperature and density 435 14.1 QCD at finite temperature and density 435 14.2 Gauge/gravity approach to the quark–gluon plasma 438 14.3 Holographic flavour at finite temperature and density 445 14.4 Sakai–Sugimoto model at finite temperature 454 14.5 Holographic predictions for the quark–gluon plasma 455 14.6 Further reading 456 References 457
15 Strongly coupled condensed matter systems 460 15.1 Quantum phase transitions 461 15.2 Charges and finite density 463 15.3 Holographic superfluids and superconductors 477 15.4 Fermions 485 15.5 Towards non-relativistic systems and hyperscaling violation 489 15.6 Entanglement entropy 496 15.7 Further reading 501 References 502
Appendix A Grassmann numbers 505
Appendix B Lie algebras and superalgebras 508
Appendix C Conventions 526
Index 527
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Gauge/gravity duality is a major new development within theoretical physics. It brings together string theory, quantum field theory and general relativity, and has applications to elementary particle, nuclear and condensed matter physics. Gauge/gravity duality is of fundamental importance since it provides new links between quantum theory and gravity which are based on string theory. It has led to both new insights about the structure of string theory and quantum gravity, and new methods and applications in many areas of physics. In a particular case, the duality maps strongly coupled quantum field theories, which are generically hard to describe, to more tractable classical gravity theories. In this way, it provides a wealth of applications to strongly coupled systems. Examples include theories similar to low-energy quantum chromodynamics (QCD), the theory of strong interactions in elementary particle physics, and models for quantum phase transitions relevant in condensed matter systems. Gauge/gravity duality realises the holographic principle and is therefore referred to as holography. The holographic principle states that the entire information content of a quantum gravity theory in a given volume can be encoded in an effective theory at the boundary surface of this volume. The theory describing the boundary degrees of freedom thus encodes all information about the bulk degrees of freedom and their dynamics, and vice versa. The holographic principle is of very general nature and is expected to be realised in many examples. In many of these cases, however, the precise form of the boundary theory is unknown, so that it cannot be used to describe the bulk dynamics. String theory, however, gives rise to a precise realisation of the holographic principle, in which both bulk and boundary theory are known: this is gauge/gravity duality. In this case, a quantum field theory at the boundary, which involves a gauge symmetry, is conjectured to be equivalent to a theory involving gravity in the bulk. Moreover, string theory provides many examples of dualities: a physical theory may generically have different equivalent formulations which are referred to as being dual to each other. Two formulations are equivalent if there is a one-to-one map between the states in each of them, and the dynamics are the same. Duality is particularly useful if physical processes are hard to calculate in one formulation, but easy to obtain in another. An example of a duality of this type is a map between two equivalent formulations in different coupling constant regimes. For instance, in a particular limit gauge/gravity duality maps a strongly coupled gauge theory, which generally is hard to describe, to a weakly coupled gravity theory, in which it is much more straightforward to perform explicit calculations. The most prominent and best understood example of gauge/gravity duality is the AdS/CFT correspondence, the celebrated proposal by Maldacena. The AdS/CFT corre- spondence is characterised by a very high degree of symmetry. Here, ‘AdS’ stands for
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Anti-de Sitter space and ‘CFT’ for conformal field theory. The field and gravity theories involved in the AdS/CFT correspondence display both supersymmetry and conformal symmetry. These symmetries are realised by the isometries of Anti-de Sitter space and further internal spaces on the one hand, and by the covariance of the quantum fields on the other. The high degree of symmetry allows for very non-trivial tests of the duality conjecture. These have led in particular to an increased understanding of the mathematical properties of N = 4 Super Yang–Mills theory, the four-dimensional superconformal quantum field theory which is the most studied example of the AdS/CFT correspondence. Motivated by the successes of the AdS/CFT correspondence in its original form, many physicists have begun to ask the question whether the AdS/CFT correspondence can be used to shed new light onto open problems in theoretical physics which are linked to strong coupling. There are many important strongly coupled systems in physics. However, although approaches to describing subsets of their properties exist, there is no general method to calculate their observables which as well established and ubiquitous as perturba- tion theory is for weakly coupled systems. Consequently, new ideas for describing strongly coupled systems are very welcome, and generalisations of the AdS/CFT correspondence to gauge/gravity dualities have made useful contributions to new descriptions of at least some aspects of strongly coupled systems. The best established example is given by the combination of gauge/gravity duality methods with linear response theory, for describing transport processes. There are many interesting phenomena of strong coupling which have been investigated using gauge/gravity duality. These include the description of theories related to QCD at low energies. The most extensively studied examples are applications to the physics of the quark–gluon plasma, a new strongly coupled state of matter at temperatures above the QCD deconfinement temperature. The quark–gluon plasma has been observed experimentally and continues to be under experimental study, in particular at the RHIC accelerator in Brookhaven and at the LHC at CERN, Geneva. In this context, gauge/gravity duality has contributed the celebrated result for η/s, the ratio of shear viscosity to entropy density, of Kovtun, Son and Starinets, which agrees well with experimental observations. This result provides an example of universality in gauge/gravity duality, which means that gravity theories with different structure, dimensionality and field content all give the same result for η/s. On the field theory side, this implies that the precise form of the microscopic degrees of freedom is irrelevant for the dynamics. More recently, gauge/gravity duality has also been applied to strongly coupled systems in condensed matter physics. In this context, the concept of universality is also of central importance, and is realised for instance near quantum phase transitions. These are phase transitions at zero temperature generated by quantum fluctuations. Given the central importance of the new research area of gauge/gravity duality, this book aims to introduce a wide audience, including beginning graduate students and researchers from neighbouring areas, to its central ideas and concepts. The book is structured in three parts. The first part covers the prerequisites for explaining the duality. In the second part, the duality is established. The third part is devoted to applications. To explain the subtle relations provided by gauge/gravity duality, in part I we first present the many ingredients which the duality relates. This involves elements of gauge theory,
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such as the large N expansion, conformal symmetry and supersymmetry on the one hand, and the geometry and gravity of Anti-de Sitter spaces on the other. Moreover, since the duality is firmly rooted within string theory, we also present an overview of relevant string theory topics. Part II of the book is devoted to establishing the duality. We explain in detail the motivation for the AdS/CFT correspondence. We state the associated conjecture and give a number of examples of the compelling evidence supporting the conjecture. A particularly important approach is based on the use of integrability. Moreover, the correspondence is generalised to non-conformal examples, and we introduce holographic renormalisation group (RG) flows. We also discuss generalisations to finite temperature, which are obtained by considering a black hole in Anti-de Sitter space. In part III, applications of gauge/gravity duality are presented. As examples, we consider holographic hydrodynamics, as relevant in particular to applications to the quark–gluon plasma. We also consider applications to theories similar to low-energy QCD. Finally, we present applications to systems of relevance in condensed matter physics, such as quantum phase transitions, superfluids and superconductors as well as Fermi surfaces. We conclude with a discussion of holographic entanglement entropy. Let us give a more detailed guide to these three parts. Part I contains four chapters reviewing the relevant aspects of quantum field theory, general relativity, symmetries such as conformal and supersymmetry, and string theory, respectively. Part I is intended primarily for graduate students. However, experienced readers may use it as a glossary of concepts used in parts II and III. Moreover, researchers interested in applications of gauge/gravity duality may find it useful to read chapter 4, which contains a short summary of string theory and supergravity as relevant for understanding the string theory origin of gauge/gravity duality. In part II, the AdS/CFT correspondence is stated and non-trivial tests as well as extensions of the AdS/CFT correspondence are presented. The key chapter is chapter 5 in which the AdS/CFT correspondence is motivated within string theory, considering in particular the near-horizon limit of D3-branes. Moreover, the field-operator map is established and the important concept of holographic renormalisation is introduced. Also, an explanation of how to realise Wilson loops in AdS/CFT is given. Chapter 6 contains non-trivial tests of the AdS/CFT correspondence, such as the calculation of correlation functions and of the conformal anomaly. In chapter 7, aspects of integrability and scattering amplitudes are introduced, providing further tests, as well as further elucidating string theory aspects of the correspondence. In chapter 8, further examples of the AdS/CFT correspondence are presented, such as AdS/CFT for branes at singularities and for M2- branes. Moreover, as a first step towards generalising the correspondence, we consider examples of the duality in which conformal symmetry is broken. In chapter 9 we discuss holographic renormalisation group (RG) flows. We consider simple cases of flows linking a UV to an IR fixed point, as well as explicit realisations of RG flows within IIB supergravity. In chapter 10 we describe models with additional branes in supergravity. In particular, we consider flavour branes, which provide descriptions of particles with similar properties to quarks and electrons within gauge/gravity duality. In chapter 11, we formulate the
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correspondence at finite temperature in Lorentzian signature and explain how to obtain a causal structure which allows us to introduce retarded Green’s functions. Readers interested primarily in applications may omit chapters 7, 8 and the second half of chapter 9 (RG flows within IIB supergravity) at first reading. Readers interested primarily in foundations are encouraged to concentrate on all chapters of part II, including chapter 11 on finite temperature. Within part II, there are a few sections denoted by an asterisk ∗. These provide material at a more advanced level and are not a prerequisite for reading the subsequent sections and chapters. Part III, devoted to applications, is organised as follows. In chapter 12 we introduce the linear response formalism and hydrodynamics and explain how both are implemented in gauge/gravity duality. This provides the tools for calculating transport coefficients. As an important example, we consider the shear viscosity over entropy ratio. We also discuss the important concept of quasinormal modes and their relation to the pole structure of Green’s functions. In chapters 13 and 14 we introduce aspects of applications of gauge/gravity duality to theories related to QCD. Chapter 13 is devoted in particular to confinement, chiral symmetry breaking and light mesons. Chapter 14 deals with applications to QCD- like theories at finite temperature and density. In chapter 15, we introduce applications of gauge/gravity duality to systems of relevance in condensed matter physics. We review the concept of quantum phase transitions, calculate conductivities, introduce holographic superconductors, review the electron star and hyperscaling models and give an introduction to the gauge/gravity duality approach to entanglement entropy. There are three appendices, on Grassmann numbers (appendix A), on Lie algebras, superalgebras and their representations (appendix B), and an appendix summarising our conventions (appendix C). Appendix B contains important information on group theory which is essential for establishing the field-operator map for the AdS/CFT correspondence. We have chosen to list the relevant references at the end of each chapter. Each of these reference lists is preceded by a ‘Further reading’ section, which briefly describes the references used in preparing the text. Moreover, an outlook on further relevant literature is given. There are exercises given in the text which are intended to help the reader become acquainted with the standard tools and methods of gauge/gravity duality. Gauge/gravity duality is a fast growing area of research with a wealth of different aspects. This implies that certain topics had to be selected for inclusion in this book. Our main guiding principle is to provide a textbook style introduction to the subject. This implies that there is an extensive introduction, and examples of generalisations and applications. Our choice of generalisations and applications is influenced by our own research experience and interests. We hope that after studying this book, readers will be able to read and understand original research papers on many other exciting aspects of gauge/gravity duality, and to become involved with research in this fascinating area themselves. Johanna Erdmenger and Martin Ammon
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We are indebted to a large number of colleagues for joint work in gauge/gravity duality. In particular, we would like to thank our past and present collaborators for numerous discussions and inspiring thoughts: Riccardo Apreda, Mario Araújo, Daniel Arean, James Babington, Nicolas Boulanger, Yan-Yan Bu, Alejandra Castro, Neil Constable, Nick Evans, Eric D’Hoker, Viviane Graß, Johannes Große, Michael Gutperle, Daniel Fernández, Veselin Filev, Mario Flory, Dan Freedman, Kazuo Ghoroku, Zachary Guralnik, Sebastian Halter, Michael Haack, Benedikt Herwerth, Carlos Hoyos, Nabil Iqbal, Matthias Kaminski, Patrick Kerner, Ingo Kirsch, Steffen Klug, Per Kraus, Karl Landsteiner, Shu Lin, Dieter Lüst, René Meyer, Thanh Hai Ngo, Carlos Nún˜ez, Andy O’Bannon, Hugh Osborn, Da-Wei Pang, Jeong-Hyuck Park, Manolo Pérez-Victoria, Eric Perlmutter, Felix Rust, Robert Schmidt, Jonathan Shock, Christoph Sieg, Charlotte Sleight, Corneliu Sochichiu, Stephan Steinfurt, Migael Strydom, Gianmassimo Tasinato, Derek Teaney, Timm Wrase, Jackson Wu, Amos Yarom and Hansjörg Zeller. Moreover we would like to thank the students who attended our lecture and examples class ‘Introduction to gauge/gravity duality’ at LMU Munich for participation and useful questions, in particular Yegor Korovin, Mario Flory, Alexander Gussmann and Tehseen Rug. Special thanks go to Oliver Schlotterer for typesetting the lecture notes for this course. These provided the starting point for this book. Many people have contributed to the completion of this book. We are grateful to Frank Dohrmann, Benedikt Herwerth, Patrick Kerner, Felix Rust, Jonathan Shock and Migael Strydom for help with figures. We are particularly grateful to Biagio Lucini for providing figure 13.8. We also would like to thank Nick Evans, Livia Ferro, Mario Flory, Felix Karbstein, Andreas Karch, Karl Landsteiner, Javier Lizana, Julian Leiber, Johanna Mader, Sebastian Möckel, Andy O’Bannon, Hugh Osborn, Da-Wei Pang, Tehseen Rug, Charlotte Sleight, Stephan Steinfurt, Ann-Kathrin Straub, Migael Strydom and Hansjörg Zeller, as well as Matthias Kaminski, Steffen Klug, René Meyer, Birger Böning, Markus Gardemann, Sebastian Grieninger, Stefan Lippold, Attila Lüttmerding and Tim Nitzsche for proofreading the manuscript and very useful comments. Moreover, we thank Charlotte Sleight and Migael Strydom for help with compiling the index. Finally, we are grateful to our families for moral support while writing this book, and for their interest in our work throughout our lives.
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PREREQUISITES
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In this chapter we review some elements of quantum field theory which are essential in the study of gauge/gravity duality. A full development of quantum field theory is clearly beyond the scope of this book. We refer the reader to the many excellent textbooks on the subject, some of which are listed in the further reading section at the end of this chapter. For simplicity, we will restrict ourselves to scalar fields in flat spacetime in the first part of the chapter and explain the most important concepts. We begin by introducing symmetries and conserved currents in the classical theory. A particularly important conserved quantity is the energy-momentum tensor which plays a central role in tests of the AdS/CFT correspondence. We discuss its derivation and its properties in detail. We then move on to the quantisation of field theories, beginning with the quantisation of the free scalar field. We review the definitions and concepts of generating functionals, of correlation functions and of the Feynman propagator. We then move on to interacting fields and discuss perturbation theory. Next we consider fermions as well as Abelian and non-Abelian gauge theories, both classically and in the quantised case. We discuss the energy-momentum tensor for classical gauge theories, as well as quantisation involving Faddeev–Popov ghost fields. An approximation of significance for gauge/gravity duality is the large N limit of non-Abelian gauge theories. Moreover, we discuss Ward identities and anomalies, which provide important examples of checks of the AdS/CFT correspondence later on.
1.1 Classical scalar field theory
Let us begin by introducing a real scalar field in flat d-dimensional Minkowski spacetime Rd−1,1, with d − 1 spatial directions. The points of the Minkowski spacetime are denoted by x with components xμ, where μ runs from 0 to d − 1. While x0 = ct is the time, xi with i = 1, ..., d − 1 are the spatial directions. In the following we set the speed of light c to one, c = 1, thus using the same units of measure for space and time. Sometimes it is also convenient to collect all the spatial components into a (d − 1)-dimensional vector x. Minkowski spacetime is equipped with a metric. The infinitesimal length ds of a spacetime interval dx is given by