The black hole in the throat - thermodynamics of strongly coupled cascading gauge theories

TL;DR

This paper numerically constructs black hole solutions in strongly coupled cascading gauge theories to analyze their thermodynamic behavior, revealing a potential first order phase transition related to deconfinement and chiral symmetry restoration.

Contribution

It provides the first numerical analysis of black hole solutions in cascading gauge theories, linking thermodynamics to phase transitions in these models.

Findings

Free energy becomes positive below a critical temperature.

Indicates a first order phase transition involving deconfinement.

Restoration of chiral symmetry at high temperatures.

Abstract

We numerically construct black hole solutions corresponding to the deconfined, chirally symmetric phase of strongly coupled cascading gauge theories at various temperatures. We compute the free energy as a function of the temperature, and we show that it becomes positive below some critical temperature, indicating the possibility of a first order phase transition at which the theory deconfines and restores the chiral symmetry.