Dissertation

Strings and AdS/CFT at finite density

Promotor: Prof.dr. J. Zaanen, A. Parnachev

Author: M. Goykhman
Date: 24 June 2014
Links: Thesis in Leiden Repository

This thesis is devoted to applications of string theoretic methods of holography to strongly coupled phases of quantum field theories. In chapter 2 we consider a finite-density system of quarks, realized holographically by a probe brane in Anti-de Sitter space, with a non-trivial gauge field background on its world-volume. We reproduce the holographic zero-sound in the longitudinal channel of the current-current correlation function. We generalize this result to the case of a non-vanishing background magnetic field. This field leads to a gap in the zero-sound mode, which scales proportionally to the magnitude of the field when it is small. In chapter 3 we study the classical dynamics of the tachyon field in an AdS background described by the tachyon-Dirac-Born-Infeld action. By considering a black hole in AdS space and switching on a non-vanishing background gauge field we obtained a holographic model of conformal symmetry breaking in a strongly coupled system at finite temperature and charge density. In chapter 4 we provide the exact string theoretic description of a quantum field theory at finite temperature and charge density.