String Theory: Preface

Recently a holographic model of hadrons motivated by AdS/CFT has been proposed to fit the low energy data of mesons. We point out that the infrared physics can be developed in a more systematic manner by exploiting backreaction of the nonperturbative condensates. We show that these condensates can naturally provide the IR cutoff corresponding to confinement, thus removing some of the ambiguities from the original formulation of the model. We also show how asymptotic freedom can be incorporated into the theory, and the substantial effect it has on the glueball spectrum and gluon condensate of the theory. A simple reinterpretation of the holographic scale results in a non-perturbative running for αs which remains finite for all energies. We also find the leading effects of adding the higher condensate into the theory. The difficulties for such models to reproduce the proper Regge physics lead us to speculate about extensions of our model incorporating tachyon condensation.

/pdf/toward-a-systematic-holographic-qcd-a-braneless-approach-22w71lf4je.pdf

Toward a systematic holographic QCD: a braneless approach

We argue that the holographic description of four-dimensional Bogomol'nyi-Prasad-Sommerfield black holes naturally includes multicenter solutions. This suggests that the holographic dual to the gauge theory is not a single AdS2×S2 but a coherent ensemble of them. We verify this in a particular class of examples, where the two-dimensional Yang-Mills theory gives a holographic description of the black holes obtained by branes wrapping Calabi-Yau cycles. Using the free fermionic formulation, we show that O(e-N) nonperturbative effects entangle the two Fermi surfaces. In an Euclidean description, the wave function of the multicenter black holes gets mapped to the Hartle-Hawking wave function of baby universes. This provides a concrete realization, within string theory, of effects that can be interpreted as the creation of baby universes. We find that, at least in the case we study, the baby universes do not lead to a loss of quantum coherence, in accord with general arguments.

/pdf/baby-universes-in-string-theory-2h8l5w2j4k.pdf

Baby universes in string theory

This work addresses nonperturbative effects in both matrix models and topological strings, and their relation with the large-order behavior of the 1/N expansion. We study instanton configurations in generic one-cut matrix models, obtaining explicit results for the one-instanton amplitude at both one and two loops. The holographic description of topological strings in terms of matrix models implies that our nonperturbative results also apply to topological strings on toric Calabi-Yau manifolds. This yields very precise predictions for the large-order behavior of the perturbative genus expansion, both in conventional matrix models and in topological string theory. We test these predictions in detail in various examples, including the quartic matrix model, topological strings on the local curve, and Hurwitz theory. In all these cases we provide extensive numerical checks which heavily support our nonperturbative analytical results. Moreover, since all these models have a critical point describing two-dimensional gravity, we also obtain in this way the large-order asymptotics of the relevant solution to the Painleve I equation, including corrections in inverse genus. From a mathematical point of view, our results predict the large-genus asymptotics of simple Hurwitz numbers and of local Gromov-Witten invariants.

Nonperturbative Effects and the Large-Order Behavior of Matrix Models and Topological Strings

We consider a new approach towards constructing approximate holographic duals of QCD from experimental hadron properties. This framework allows us to derive a gravity dual which reproduces the empirically found linear square-mass trajectories of universal slope for radially and orbitally excited hadrons. Conformal symmetry breaking in the bulk is exclusively due to infrared deformations of the anti-de Sitter metric and governed by one free mass scale proportional to Lambda_QCD. The resulting background geometry exhibits dual signatures of confinement and provides the first examples of holographically generated linear trajectories in the baryon sector. The predictions for the light hadron spectrum include new relations between trajectory slopes and ground state masses and are in good overall agreement with experiment.

Linear square-mass trajectories of radially and orbitally excited hadrons in holographic QCD

Perturbative and non-perturbative aspects of the two-dimensional string/Yang–Mills correspondence

Type-0B string theory has been proposed as the dual description of non-supersymmetric SU(N) Yang-Mills theory coupled to six scalars, in four dimensions. We study numerically and analytically the equations of motion of type-0B gravity and we find RG trajectories of the dual theory that flow from an asymptotically free UV regime to a confining IR regime. In the UV we find a one-parameter family of solutions that approach asymptotically AdS5 × S5 with a logarithmic flow of the coupling plus non-perturbative terms that correctly reproduce all UV and IR renormalon singularities. The first UV renormalon gives a contribution ~ F1(E)/E2 and we are able to predict also the form of the function F1(E), which, from the YM side, corresponds to summing all multiple-chain bubble graphs. The fact that the positions of the renormalon singularities in the Borel plane come out correctly is a non-trivial test of the conjectured duality.

Confinement, asymptotic freedom and renormalons in type 0 string duals

Type 0B string theory has been proposed as the dual description of non-supersymmetric SU(N) Yang-Mills theory coupled to six scalars, in four dimensions. We study numerically and analytically the equations of motion of type 0B gravity and we find RG trajectories of the dual theory that flow from an asymptotically free UV regime to a confining IR regime. In the UV we find a one-parameter family of solutions that approach asymptotically $AdS_5\times S^5$ with a logarithmic flow of the coupling plus non-perturbative terms that correctly reproduce all UV and IR renormalon singularities. The first UV renormalon gives a contribution $\sim F_1(E)/E^2$ and we are able to predict also the form of the function $F_1(E)$, which, from the YM side, corresponds to summing all multiple-chain bubble graphs. The fact that the positions of the renormalon singularities in the Borel plane come out correctly is a non-trivial test of the conjectured duality.

Two dimensional SU(N) Yang-Mills theory is known to be equivalent to a string theory, as found by Gross in the large N limit, using the 1/N expansion Later it was found that even a generalized YM theory leads to a string theory of the Gross type In the standard YM theory case, Douglas and others found the string hamiltonian describing the propagation and the interactions of states made of strings winding on a cylindrical space-time We address the problem of finding a similar hamiltonian for the generalized YM theory As in the standard case we start by writing the theory as a theory of free fermions Performing a bosonization, we express the hamiltonian in terms of the modes of a bosonic field, that are interpreted as in the standard case as creation and destruction operators for states of strings winding around the cylindrical space-time The result is similar to the standard hamiltonian, but with new kinds of interaction vertices

String hamiltonian from generalized YM gauge theory in two dimensions

Two-dimensional SU(N) Yang–Mills theory is known to be equivalent to a string theory, as found by Gross in the large N limit, using the 1/N expansion. Later it was found that even a generalized YM theory leads to a string theory of the Gross type. In the standard YM theory case, Douglas and others found the string Hamiltonian describing the propagation and the interactions of states made of strings winding on a cylindrical space–time. We address the problem of finding a similar Hamiltonian for the generalized YM theory. As in the standard case we start by writing the theory as a theory of free fermions. Performing a bosonization, we express the Hamiltonian in terms of the modes of a bosonic field, that are interpreted as in the standard case as creation and destruction operators for states of strings winding around the cylindrical space–time. The result is similar to the standard Hamiltonian, but with new kinds of interaction vertices.

Simone Lelli

Papers

Perturbative and non-perturbative aspects of the two-dimensional string/Yang–Mills correspondence

Confinement, asymptotic freedom and renormalons in type 0 string duals

Confinement, asymptotic freedom and renormalons in type 0 string duals

String hamiltonian from generalized YM gauge theory in two dimensions

String hamiltonian from generalized yang–mills gauge theory in two dimensions