Screening in strongly coupled $ \mathcal{N} = {2^*} $ supersymmetric Yang-Mills plasma

Abstract

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.

Debye screening mass near deconfinement from holography

“…[24] computed the thermal screening lengths for an N = 2 * plasma, which is nonconformal deformation of the N = 4 SYM plasma obtained by giving a mass µ to the adjoint scalars and fermions [73][74][75]. Using this top-down non-conformal construction [24] also obtained that m D /T (computed from the axion fluctuations) becomes smaller than its a finite temperature phase transition and, thus, the discontinuity in m D /T at T c found here is a new feature brought in by the non-conformal plasmas constructed within IHQCD.…”

“…[9] where m D was defined as the largest inverse screening length among all the possible Euclidean correlation functions involving pairs of CT -odd operators in the thermal gauge field theory. Previous studies concerning thermal screening lengths in non-Abelian plasmas include lattice calculations [10][11][12][13][14][15][16], non-perturbative analyses of the gluon propagator at finite temperature [17][18][19][20], other analytical approaches [21,22], and holographic calculations [23][24][25].…”

On consistent truncations in $ \mathcal{N} $ = 2* holography

“…PW effective action, as a holographic dual to N = 2 * supersymmetric gauge theory, has been extensively used as a benchmark for gravitational computations of the thermodynamics [12][13][14], the hydrodynamics [15][16][17][18], and the entanglement entropy [19] of strongly coupled nonconformal gauge theory plasmas. For example, in [20] a critical phenomena in N = 2 * plasma was identified, which appears to be outside the dynamical universality classes established by Hohenberg and Halperin [21].…”

Holographic dual of the Eguchi-Kawai mechanism

“…In particular, D-brane probes have provided a wealth of information about the PW geometry [16,[25][26][27][28]. The holographic dual of N = 2 * SYM at finite temperature was constructed in [29], opening the avenue for studying thermodynamics of this theory at strong coupling [30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38]. It is this analysis that first pointed to the 5d nature of the strongly-coupled N = 2 * SYM [4].…”