The Sound of M-Theory

TL;DR

This paper investigates sound wave propagation in M-branes at finite temperature using the AdS/CFT correspondence, deriving hydrodynamic properties from eleven-dimensional supergravity solutions.

Contribution

It provides the first calculation of sound modes in the hydrodynamic limit for M-branes via gravitational duals, linking supergravity solutions to field theory sound propagation.

Findings

Identification of poles in stress-energy tensor correlators indicating sound modes.

Confirmation of hydrodynamic behavior in M-brane field theories.

Extension of AdS/CFT techniques to M-theory brane configurations.

Abstract

We consider sound propagation on M5- and M2-branes in the hydrodynamic limit. In particular, we look at the low energy description of a stack of N M-branes at finite temperature. At low energy, the M-branes are well described, via the AdS/CFT correspondence, in terms of classical solutions to the eleven dimensional supergravity equations of motion. From this gravitational description, we calculate Lorentzian signature two-point functions of the stress-energy tensor on these M-branes in the long-distance, low-frequency limit, i.e. the hydrodynamic limit. The poles in these Green's functions show evidence for sound propagation in the field theory living on the M-branes.