Thermal spectral functions of strongly coupled N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory

TL;DR

This paper uses gauge-gravity duality to compute the spectral functions of the stress-energy tensor in strongly coupled N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory at finite temperature, revealing hydrodynamic peaks and non-perturbative features.

Contribution

It provides the first non-perturbative spectral functions for the stress-energy tensor in this theory using holographic methods.

Findings

Spectral functions show hydrodynamic peaks at low frequency.

Oscillations observed at intermediate frequencies.

Non-perturbative spectral functions differ from perturbative results.

Abstract

We use the gauge-gravity duality conjecture to compute spectral functions of the stress-energy tensor in finite temperature N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory in the limit of large Nc and large coupling. The spectral functions exhibit peaks characteristic of hydrodynamic modes at small frequency, and oscillations at intermediate frequency. The non-perturbative spectral functions differ qualitatively from those obtained in perturbation theory. The results may prove useful for lattice studies of transport processes in thermal gauge theories.