Testing holography using lattice super-Yang--Mills on a 2-torus

TL;DR

This paper uses lattice gauge theory to test holographic predictions of black hole solutions in maximally supersymmetric SU(N) Yang--Mills theory on a two-torus, exploring phase transitions and the effects of torus shape.

Contribution

It provides the first lattice simulation testing holography in a two-dimensional setting with variable torus shapes, including skewed geometries, and confirms gravity predictions about phase transitions.

Findings

Observed two black hole phases with expected behaviors.

Detected a phase transition consistent with Gregory--Laflamme predictions.

Performed simulations up to N=16 with multiple lattice spacings.

Abstract

We consider maximally supersymmetric SU(N) Yang--Mills theory in Euclidean signature compactified on a flat two-dimensional torus with anti-periodic (`thermal') fermion boundary conditions imposed on one cycle. At large N, holography predicts that this theory describes certain black hole solutions in Type IIA and IIB supergravity, and we use lattice gauge theory to test this. Unlike the one-dimensional quantum mechanics case where there is only the dimensionless temperature to vary, here we emphasize there are two more parameters which determine the shape of the flat torus. While a rectangular Euclidean torus yields a thermal interpretation, allowing for skewed tori modifies the holographic dual black hole predictions and results in another direction to test holography. Our lattice calculations are based on a supersymmetric formulation naturally adapted to a particular skewing. Using this we perform simulations up to N=16 with several lattice spacings for both skewed and rectangular tori. We observe the two expected black hole phases with their predicted behavior, with a transition between them that is consistent with the gravity prediction based on the Gregory--Laflamme transition.