Finite coupling corrections to holographic predictions for hot QCD

TL;DR

This paper investigates finite 't Hooft coupling corrections in strongly coupled N=4 SYM plasma, analyzing their impact on thermodynamics, transport, and quasinormal modes, and explores resummation techniques to improve stability of predictions.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of finite coupling corrections across multiple observables in holographic plasma and introduces a partial resummation method to enhance prediction stability.

Findings

Resummation reduces sensitivity of quasinormal mode frequencies to coupling.

Finite coupling corrections significantly affect thermodynamic and transport properties.

Partial resummation improves the reliability of holographic predictions at finite coupling.

Abstract

Finite 't Hooft coupling corrections to multiple physical observables in strongly coupled $N=4$ supersymmetric Yang-Mills plasma are examined, in an attempt to assess the stability of the expansion in inverse powers of the 't Hooft coupling $\lambda$. Observables considered include thermodynamic quantities, transport coefficients, and quasinormal mode frequencies. Although large $\lambda$ expansions for quasinormal mode frequencies are notably less well behaved than the expansions of other quantities, we find that a partial resummation of higher order corrections can significantly reduce the sensitivity of the results to the value of $\lambda$.