Probing emergent geometry through phase transitions in free vector and matrix models

TL;DR

This paper investigates how phase transitions in free vector and matrix models relate to the emergence of geometric structures in their gravity duals, revealing different bulk behaviors at various temperature regimes.

Contribution

It demonstrates the connection between boundary phase transitions and the emergence of bulk geometries, including black hole-like objects, in higher spin gravity duals of symmetric field theories.

Findings

Boundary two-point functions match thermal AdS at low temperature.

Above the phase transition, bulk objects resemble black holes, differing by model type.

Large distance correlations show a second crossover to thermal AdS form.

Abstract

Boundary correlation functions provide insight into the emergence of an effective geometry in higher spin gravity duals of O(N) or U(N) symmetric field theories. On a compact manifold, the singlet constraint leads to nontrivial dynamics at finite temperature and large N phase transitions even at vanishing 't Hooft coupling. At low temperature, the leading behavior of boundary two-point functions is consistent with propagation through a bulk thermal anti de Sitter space. Above the phase transition, the two-point function shows significant departure from thermal AdS space and the emergence of localized black hole like objects in the bulk. In adjoint models, these objects appear at length scales of order of the AdS radius, consistent with a Hawking-Page transition, but in vector models they are parametrically larger than the AdS scale. In low dimensions, we find another crossover at large distances beyond which the correlation function again takes a thermal AdS form, albeit with a temperature dependent normalization factor.