Gauge Gravity Duality

The first textbook on this important topic, for graduate students and researchers in particle and condensed matter physics.

Gauge/gravity duality creates new links between quantum theory and gravity. It has led to new concepts in mathematics and physics, and provides new tools to solve problems in many areas of theoretical physics. This book is the first textbook on this important topic, enabling graduate students and researchers in string theory and particle, nuclear and condensed matter physics to get acquainted with the subject. Focusing on the fundamental aspects as well as on the applications, this textbook guides readers through a thorough explanation of the central concepts of gauge/gravity duality. For the AdS/CFT correspondence, it explains in detail how string theory provides the conjectured map. Generalisations to less symmetric cases of gauge/gravity duality and their applications are then presented, in particular to finite temperature and density, hydrodynamics, QCD-like theories, the quark-gluon plasma and condensed matter systems. The textbook features a large number of exercises, with solutions available online at www.cambridge.org/9781107010345.

A pedagogical and self-contained introduction to AdS/CFT correspondence aimed at graduate students and researchers across theoretical physics.

The AdS/CFT correspondence is a powerful tool in studying strongly coupled phenomena in gauge field theories, using results from a weakly coupled gravity background studied in the realm of string theory. AdS/CFT was first successfully applied to the study of phenomena such as the quark-gluon plasma produced in heavy ions collisions. Soon it was realized that its applicability can be extended, in a more phenomenological approach, to condensed matter systems and to systems described by fluid dynamics. The set of tutorial reviews in this volume is intended as an introduction to and survey of the principle of the AdS/CFT correspondence in its field/string theoretic formulation, its applicability to holographic QCD and to heavy ions collisions, and to give a first account of processes in fluid dynamics and condensed matter physics, which can be studied with the use of this principle. Written by leading researchers in the field and cast into the form of a high-level but approachable multi-author textbook, this volume will be of benefit to all postgraduate students, and newcomers from neighboring disciplines wishing to find a comprehensive guide for their future research.

This book describes applications of the AdS/CFT duality to the "real world." The AdS/CFT duality is an idea that originated from string theory and is a powerful tool for analyzing strongly-coupled gauge theories using classical gravitational theories. In recent years, it has been shown that one prediction of AdS/CFT is indeed close to the experimental result of the real quark–gluon plasma. Since then, the AdS/CFT duality has been applied to various fields of physics; examples are QCD, nuclear physics, condensed-matter physics, and nonequilibrium physics. The aim of this book is to provide background materials such as string theory, black holes, nuclear physics, condensed-matter physics, and nonequilibrium physics as well as key applications of the AdS/CFT duality in a single volume. The emphasis throughout the book is on a pedagogical and intuitive approach focusing on the underlying physical concepts. It also includes step-by-step computations for important results, which are useful for beginners. This book will be a valuable reference work for graduate students and researchers in particle physics, general relativity, nuclear physics, nonequilibrium physics, and condensed-matter physics.

This book provides a comprehensive, pedagogical introduction to scattering amplitudes in gauge theory and gravity for graduate students.

A pioneering treatise presenting how the mathematical techniques of holographic duality can unify the fundamental theories of physics.