Holographic quark gluon plasma with flavor

TL;DR

This paper uses gauge/gravity duality to study the thermodynamics, spectral functions, and phase diagram of a strongly coupled quark-gluon plasma with flavor, providing insights relevant to heavy ion collision experiments.

Contribution

It introduces new theoretical and phenomenological insights into the behavior of flavored strongly coupled plasmas, including stable mesons beyond the deconfinement transition.

Findings

Stable mesons survive beyond the deconfinement transition.

Thermodynamics and transport coefficients are characterized in the model.

Qualitative predictions for RHIC and LHC heavy ion collisions.

Abstract

In this work I explore theoretical and phenomenological implications of chemical potentials and charge densities inside a strongly coupled thermal plasma, using the gauge/gravity correspondence. Strong coupling effects discovered in this model theory are interpreted geometrically and may be taken as qualitative predictions for heavy ion collisions at RHIC and LHC. In particular I examine the thermodynamics, spectral functions, transport coefficients and the phase diagram of the strongly coupled plasma. For example stable mesons, which are the analogs of the QCD Rho-mesons, are found to survive beyond the deconfinement transition. This paper is based on partly unpublished work performed in the context of my PhD thesis. New results and ideas extending significantly beyond those published until now are stressed.