Phase transitions of an anisotropic N=4 super Yang-Mills plasma via holography

TL;DR

This paper investigates phase transitions in an anisotropic N=4 super Yang-Mills plasma using holography, revealing instabilities and new black hole solutions with unique thermodynamic and conductive properties at low temperatures.

Contribution

It extends previous holographic models by analyzing stability and constructing new black hole solutions with multiple scalar and gauge fields in an anisotropic setting.

Findings

Black holes become unstable at low temperatures.

New exotic black hole solutions are constructed.

DC conductivity diverges at zero temperature.

Abstract

Black hole solutions of type IIB supergravity were previously found that are dual to N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills plasma with an anisotropic spatial deformation. In the zero temperature limit, these black holes approach a Liftshitz like scaling solution in the IR. It was recently shown that these black holes are unstable, and at low temperatures there is a new class of black hole solutions that are thermodynamically preferred. We extend this analysis, by considering consistent truncations of the Kaluza-Klein reduction of IIB supergravity on a five-sphere that preserves multiple scalar and $U(1)$ gauge fields. We show that the previously constructed black holes become unstable at low temperatures, and construct new classes of exotic black hole solutions. We study the DC thermo-electric conductivity of these $U(1)$ charged black holes, and find a diverging DC conductivity at zero temperature due to the divergence of the gauge field coupling.