Holographic Thermodynamics at Finite Baryon Density: Some Exact Results

TL;DR

This paper employs the AdS/CFT correspondence to derive exact results for the thermodynamics of massive hypermultiplets at finite baryon density, revealing phase transitions and clarifying D-brane configurations.

Contribution

It provides the first exact expressions for free energy contributions at zero temperature and mass, and clarifies D-brane configurations for finite chemical potential in holographic thermodynamics.

Findings

Second-order phase transition at chemical potential equal to mass

Exact free energy expressions at zero temperature and mass

Clarification of D-brane configurations for chemical potential

Abstract

We use the AdS/CFT correspondence to study the thermodynamics of massive N=2 supersymmetric hypermultiplets coupled to N=4 supersymmetric SU(Nc) Yang-Mills theory in the limits of large Nc and large 't Hooft coupling. In particular, we study the theory at finite baryon number density. At zero temperature, we present an exact expression for the hypermultiplets' leading-order contribution to the free energy, and in the supergravity description we clarify which D-brane configuration is appropriate for any given value of the chemical potential. We find a second-order phase transition when the chemical potential equals the mass. At finite temperature, we present an exact expression for the hypermultiplets' leading-order contribution to the free energy at zero mass.