Plasma photoemission from string theory

TL;DR

This paper investigates how leading string theory corrections affect the photoemission rate of a strongly-coupled plasma, revealing an interpolating behavior from strong to weak coupling and confirming previous conductivity results.

Contribution

It extends previous work by including full order '^3 corrections in type IIB string theory, analyzing their impact on photoemission and electrical conductivity in the plasma.

Findings

Photoemission rates interpolate between strong and weak coupling regimes.

Electrical conductivity at zero momentum matches previous results.

Higher order string corrections influence plasma electromagnetic properties.

Abstract

Leading 't Hooft coupling corrections to the photoemission rate of the planar limit of a strongly-coupled {\cal {N}}=4 SYM plasma are investigated using the gauge/string duality. We consider the full order \alpha'^3 type IIB string theory corrections to the supergravity action, including higher order terms with the Ramond-Ramond five-form field strength. We extend our previous results presented in arXiv:1110.0526. Photoemission rates depend on the 't Hooft coupling, and their curves suggest an interpolating behaviour from strong towards weak coupling regimes. Their slopes at zero light-like momentum give the electrical conductivity as a function of the 't Hooft coupling, in full agreement with our previous results of arXiv:1108.6306. Furthermore, we also study the effect of corrections beyond the large N limit.