On the Thermodynamics of a Gas of AdS Black Holes and the Quark-Hadron Phase Transition

TL;DR

This paper explores the thermodynamics of a gas of AdS black holes, revealing a van der Waals behavior and connecting it to quark-gluon plasma properties, with results aligning qualitatively with lattice QCD data.

Contribution

It demonstrates that a black hole gas in AdS space follows a van der Waals equation and relates its thermodynamics to gauge theory, providing insights into the quark-hadron phase transition.

Findings

Black hole gas exhibits van der Waals thermodynamics.

Energy density increases rapidly above deconfinement temperature.

Pressure approaches high-temperature limit gradually.

Abstract

We discuss the thermodynamics of a gas of black holes in five-dimensional anti-de-Sitter (AdS) space, showing that they are described by a van der Waals equation of state. Motivated by the Maldacena conjecture, we relate the energy density and pressure of this non-ideal AdS black-hole gas to those of four-dimensional gauge theory in the unconfined phase. We find that the energy density rises rapidly above the deconfinement transition temperature, whilst the pressure rises more slowly towards its asymptotic high-temperature value, in qualitative agreement with lattice simulations.