Thermodynamics of the N=2^* strongly coupled plasma

TL;DR

This paper explores the thermodynamics of the N=2^* gauge theory, a non-conformal deformation of N=4 theory, revealing similarities to conformal plasma and offering insights into strongly coupled quark-gluon plasma models.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed thermodynamic analysis of the N=2^* theory, bridging the gap between conformal models and real QCD plasma behavior.

Findings

Thermodynamics of N=2^* plasma closely resembles conformal plasma at relevant temperatures.

Suggests simple conformal models can effectively approximate QCD plasma properties.

Supports the use of gauge/string duality in studying strongly coupled quark-gluon plasma.

Abstract

Gauge/string duality is a potentially important framework for addressing the properties of the strongly coupled quark gluon plasma produced at RHIC. However, constructing an actual string theory dual to QCD has so far proven elusive. In this paper, we take a partial step towards exploring the QCD plasma by investigating the thermodynamics of a non-conformal system, namely the N=2^* theory, which is obtained as a mass deformation of the conformal N=4 gauge theory. We find that at temperatures of order the mass scale, the thermodynamics of the mass deformed plasma is surprisingly close to that of the conformal gauge theory plasma. This suggests that many properties of the quark gluon plasma at RHIC may in fact be well described by even relatively simple models such as that of the conformal N=4 plasma.