Holographic Roberge-Weiss Transitions

TL;DR

This paper studies phase transitions in strongly coupled N=4 SYM with fundamental flavors at imaginary chemical potential using gauge/gravity duality, revealing Roberge-Weiss and thermal phase transitions with detailed phase boundary analysis.

Contribution

It provides a holographic analysis of Roberge-Weiss transitions and thermal phases in N=4 SYM with flavors at imaginary chemical potential, identifying triple points and phase boundary properties.

Findings

Roberge-Weiss transitions are first-order and linked to Z(N) symmetry.

Identified triple points as Roberge-Weiss endpoints.

Determined phase boundary curvature and confirmed analyticity in mu^2 near zero.

Abstract

We investigate N=4 SYM coupled to fundamental flavours at nonzero imaginary quark chemical potential in the strong coupling and large N limit, using gauge/gravity duality applied to the D3-D7 system, treating flavours in the probe approximation. The interplay between Z(N) symmetry and the imaginary chemical potential yields a series of first-order Roberge-Weiss transitions. An additional thermal transition separates phases where quarks are bound/unbound into mesons. This results in a set of Roberge-Weiss endpoints: we establish that these are triple points, determine the Roberge-Weiss temperature, give the curvature of the phase boundaries and confirm that the theory is analytic in mu^2 when mu^2~0.