N=4 Super Yang Mills at Finite Density: the Naked Truth

TL;DR

This paper investigates the phase structure of N=4 super Yang Mills theory at finite density and temperature using AdS/CFT, revealing a phase transition from Coulomb branch configurations to deconfined black hole states.

Contribution

It identifies and characterizes the phase transition between Coulomb branch solutions with naked singularities and black hole solutions at finite density.

Findings

Naked singularity solutions correspond to Coulomb phase at finite density.

A critical density triggers a phase transition to a black hole representing deconfined phase.

Free energy analysis maps the phase diagram at finite temperature and density.

Abstract

We study N=4 super Yang Mills theory at finite U(1)_R charge density (and temperature) using the AdS/CFT Correspondence. The ten dimensional backgrounds around spinning D3 brane configurations split into two classes of solution. One class describe spinning black holes and have previously been extensively studied, and interpreted, in a thermodynamic context, as the deconfined high density phase of the dual field theory. The other class have naked singularities and in the supersymmetric limit are known to correspond to multi-centre solutions describing the field theory in the Coulomb phase. We provide evidence that the non-supersymmetric members of this class represent naked, spinning D-brane distributions describing the Coulomb branch at finite density. At a critical density a phase transition occurs to a spinning black hole representing the deconfined phase where the higgs vevs have evaporated. We perform a free energy calculation to determine the phase diagram of the Coulomb branch at finite temperature and density.