Lovelock gravity and the AdS/CFT correspondence

Author(s)

Anderson Seigo Misobuchi

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Instituto de Física (IF/SBI)
• Defense date: 2016-04-08

Examining board members

Diego Trancanelli; Betti Hartmann; Horatiu Stefan Nastase

• Advisor: Diego Trancanelli

Abstract

The AdS/CFT correspondence is a remarkable tool in the study of strongly coupled gauge theories which can be mapped to a dual, weakly coupled gravitational description. The correspondence is best understood in the limit in which both $N$ and $\\lambda$, the rank of the gauge group and the \'t Hooft coupling of the gauge theory, respectively, are infinite. Accounting for higher curvature interactions allows one to begin to consider finite $\\lambda$. For example, the leading finite coupling corrections to type IIB supergravity arise as stringy corrections with schematic form $\\alpha\'^3 R^4$. In this work we investigate higher curvature corrections in a simpler scenario, the Lovelock gravity. Lovelock gravity is a nice framework to investigate such corrections since its equations of motion are still second order in derivatives and is particularly interesting from the point of view of the AdS/CFT correspondence because a large class of asymptotically AdS black holes solutions are known. We consider five-dimensional AdS-axion-dilaton gravity with a Gauss-Bonnet term and find a solution of the equations of motion which corresponds to a black brane exhibiting a spatial anisotropy, with the source of the anisotropy being an axion field linear in one of the spatial coordinates. We study its thermodynamics and we carry out the holographic renormalization using the Hamilton-Jacobi approach. Finally, we use the solution as a gravity dual to a strongly coupled anisotropic plasma with two independent central charges, $a eq c$. We compute several observables relevant to the study of the plasma, namely, the shear viscosity over entropy density ratio, the drag force, the jet quenching parameter, the quarkonium potential and the thermal photon production. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 14/07840-7 - Lovelock gravity and the AdS/CFT correspondence
• Grantee: Anderson Seigo Misobuchi
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master