The QCD Trace Anomaly at Strong Coupling from M-Theory

TL;DR

This paper uses a top-down holographic M-theory model to derive the temperature dependence of the QCD conformal anomaly, aligning with recent lattice results and predicting a deconfinement temperature consistent with QCD.

Contribution

It presents a novel M-theory holographic dual approach to compute the QCD conformal anomaly's temperature dependence, matching lattice data and estimating the deconfinement temperature.

Findings

QCD conformal anomaly temperature dependence matches lattice results

Deconfinement temperature estimated at 150 MeV

Holographic model reproduces key QCD thermodynamics features

Abstract

In this short note we address the issue of obtaining the temperature dependence of the QCD conformal anomaly from a top-down holographic dual consistent with very recent lattice results for both, T<Tc and T>Tc. As the holographic dual, we use the M-theory uplift of the SYZ type IIA mirror obtained in arXiv:1306.4339 at finite gauge/string coupling (as part of the 'MQGP' limit) of the type IIB holographic dual of large-N thermal QCD of arXiv:0902.1540. We also show that after a tuning of the (small) Ouyang embedding parameter and radius of a blown-up S^2 when expressed in terms of the horizon radius, a QCD deconfinement temperature Tc = 150 MeV from a Hawking-Page phase transition at vanishing baryon chemical potential, consistent with lattice QCD in the heavy-quark limit, can be obtained.