Open/closed string duality and relativistic fluids

TL;DR

This paper proposes a holographic duality connecting open string theories on D-branes with supergravity solutions, demonstrating how relativistic hydrodynamics emerges from supergravity in a long-wavelength regime, and exploring deformations related to higher-derivative effects.

Contribution

It introduces a general open/closed string duality extending holography to gravity, linking open string field theories with supergravity solutions, and elucidates the emergence of relativistic hydrodynamics from supergravity.

Findings

Full abelian DBI action derived from supergravity as relativistic hydrodynamics

Demonstration of open/closed string duality in flat space D-brane setups

Identification of higher-derivative and non-abelian effects as hydrodynamic deformations

Abstract

We propose an open/closed string duality in general backgrounds extending previous ideas about open string completeness by Ashoke Sen. Our proposal sets up a general version of holography that works in gravity as a tomographic principle. We argue, in particular, that previous expectations of a supergravity/Dirac-Born-Infeld (DBI) correspondence are naturally embedded in this conjecture and can be tested in a well-defined manner. As an example, we consider the correspondence between open string field theories on extremal D-brane setups in flat space in the large-N, large 't Hooft limit, and asymptotically flat solutions in ten-dimensional type II supergravity. We focus on a convenient long-wavelength regime, where specific effects of higher-spin open string modes can be traced explicitly in the dual supergravity computation. For instance, in this regime we show how the full abelian DBI action arises from supergravity as a straightforward reformulation of relativistic hydrodynamics. In the example of a (2+1)-dimensional open string theory this reformulation involves an abelian Hodge duality. We also point out how different deformations of the DBI action, related to higher-derivative corrections and non-abelian effects, can arise in this context as deformations in corresponding relativistic hydrodynamics.