Quarks in an External Electric Field in Finite Temperature Large N Gauge Theory

TL;DR

This paper investigates how an external electric field affects meson stability and phase transitions in a large N gauge theory at finite temperature, revealing a dissociation transition analogous to an insulator-metal change.

Contribution

It demonstrates the electric field-induced meson dissociation and its interplay with meson melting in a holographic large N gauge theory at finite temperature.

Findings

Electric field causes meson dissociation at zero temperature.

Dissociation transition resembles an insulator-metal transition.

Electric field lowers the critical temperature for meson melting.

Abstract

We use a ten dimensional dual string background to aspects of the physics large N four dimensional SU(N) gauge theory, where its fundamental quarks are charged under a background electric field. The theory is N=2 supersymmetric for vanishing temperature and electric field. At zero temperature, we observe that the electric field induces a phase transition associated with the dissociation of the mesons into their constituent quarks. This is an analogue of an insulator-metal transition, since the system goes from being an insulator with zero current (in the applied field) to a conductor with free charge carriers (the quarks). At finite temperature this phenomenon persists, with the dissociation transition become subsumed into the more familiar meson melting transition. Here, the dissociation phenomenon reduces the critical melting temperature.