Mass spectrum and thermodynamics of quasi-conformal gauge theories from gauge/gravity duality

TL;DR

This paper uses gauge/gravity duality to analyze the mass spectrum and thermodynamics of quasi-conformal gauge theories, revealing how their properties change near conformality and correlating mass spectra with thermal behavior.

Contribution

It provides a unified study of mass spectra and thermodynamics in quasi-conformal gauge theories using gauge/gravity duality, highlighting the behavior near conformality.

Findings

Mass spectra are either quasinormal modes or zero-temperature states depending on the dual geometry.

Masses vanish as the theory approaches conformality, following expected scaling laws.

Mass spectra are quantitatively linked to the thermal properties of the system.

Abstract

We use gauge/gravity duality to study simultaneously the mass spectrum and the thermodynamics of a generic quasi-conformal gauge theory, specified by its beta function. The beta function of a quasi-conformal theory almost vanishes, and the coupling is almost constant between two widely separated energy scales. Depending on whether the gravity dual has a black hole or not, the mass spectrum is either a spectrum of quasinormal oscillations or a normal T=0 mass spectrum. The mass spectrum is quantitatively correlated with the thermal properties of the system. As the theory approaches conformality, the masses have to vanish. We show that in this limit, the masses calculated via gauge/gravity duality satisfy expected scaling properties.