Critical phenomena in N=2* plasma

TL;DR

This paper investigates the critical behavior of N=2* supersymmetric Yang-Mills plasma at strong coupling using gauge/gravity duality, revealing a second-order phase transition with mean-field characteristics and unique dynamical properties.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of static and dynamical critical exponents in N=2* plasma, highlighting deviations from established universality classes.

Findings

Second-order phase transition with mean-field exponents

Dynamical critical exponent z=0 with multiple relaxation rates

Dynamical phenomena outside known universality classes

Abstract

We use gauge theory/string theory correspondence to study finite temperature critical behaviour of mass deformed N=4 SU(N) supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory at strong coupling, also known as N=2* gauge theory. For certain range of the mass parameters, N=2* plasma undergoes a second-order phase transition. We compute all the static critical exponents of the model and demonstrate that the transition is of the mean-field theory type. We show that the dynamical critical exponent of the model is z=0, with multiple hydrodynamic relaxation rates at criticality. We point out that the dynamical critical phenomena in N=2* plasma is outside the dynamical universality classes established by Hohenberg and Halperin.