Using gauge-gravity duality, we extend thermodynamic studies and present results for thermal screening masses in strongly coupled N = 2 * supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory. This non-conformal theory is a mass deformation of maximally supersymmetric N = 4 gauge theory. Results are obtained for the entropy density, pressure, specific heat, equation of state, and screening masses, down to previously unexplored low temperatures. The temperature dependence of screening masses in various symmetry channels, which characterize the longest length scales over which thermal fluctuations in the non-Abelian plasma are correlated, is examined and found to be asymptotically linear in the low temperature regime.

The holographic description of Pomeron exchange in a strongly-coupled gauge theory with an AdS dual is extended to the case of two to three scattering. We study the production event of a central particle via hadron-hadron scattering in the double Regge kinematic regime of large center-of-momentum energy and fixed momentum transfer. The computation reduces to the overlap of a holographic wave function for the central particle with a source function for the Pomerons. The formalism is applied to scalar glueball production and the resulting amplitude is studied in various kinematic limits.

The thermodynamics of four-dimensional SU (2) N = 2 super-Yang-Mills theory is examined in both high and low temperature regimes. At low temperatures, compelling evidence is found for two distinct equilibrium states related by a spontaneously broken discrete R-symmetry. These equilibrium states exist because the quantum moduli space of the theory has two singular points where extra massless states appear. At high temperature, a unique R-symmetry-preserving equilibrium state is found. Discrepancies with previous results in the literature are explained. Contents 1 To obtain a Minkowski space Lagrange density, L (Mink.) , from the Euclidean version, one performs the rotation x 0 = −ix 0 E and identifies L (Mink.) = −L (Eucl.) .7 Here a is understood to mean a . Future usage should be clear from context.

We bring attention to the fact that Maxwell's mean free path for a dilute hard-sphere gas in thermal equilibrium, $(\sqrt{2}\sigma n)^{-1}$, which is ordinarily obtained by multiplying the average speed by the average time between collisions, is also the statistical mean of the distribution of free path lengths in such a gas.Comment: 19 pages, 5 figures; added discussion of results for hard-sphere gas; improvements to text to increase clarity; published versio

We discuss the quantum mechanics of a particle restricted to the half-line > x 0 with potential energy a = Vx 2 for a -< < 1 4 0. It is known that two scale-invariant theories may be defined. By regularizing the near-origin behavior of the potential by a finite square well with variable width b and depth g, it is shown how these two scale-invariant theories occupy fixed points in the resulting (b, g)space of Hamiltonians. A renormalization group (RG) flow exists in this space and scaling variables are shown to exist in a neighborhood of the fixed points. Consequently, the propagator of the regulated theory enjoys homogeneous scaling laws close to the fixed points. Using RG arguments it is possible to discern the functional form of the propagator for long distances and long imaginary times, thus demonstrating the extent to which fixed points control the behavior of the cut-off theory. By keeping the width fixed and varying only the well depth, we show how the mean position of a bound state diverges as g approaches a critical value. It is proven that the exponent characterizing the divergence is universal in the sense that its value is independent of the choice of regulator. Two classical interpretations of the results are discussed: standard Brownian motion on the real line, and the free energy of a certain one-dimensional chain of particles with prescribed boundary conditions. In the former example, V appears as part of an expectation value in the Feynman-Kac formula. In the latter example, V appears as the background potential for the chain, and the loss of extensivity is dictated by a universal power law.