[PAST EVENT] Physics Colloquium - Vaman

March 25, 2016
4pm - 5pm
Location
Small Hall, Room 111
300 Ukrop Way
Williamsburg, VA 23185Map this location
Abstract:
In this talk I will review the holographic duality which relates strongly interacting quantum systems and weakly coupled strings. In broad terms, the duality states that the information contained in the bulk of a 5-dimensional theory of gravity (which asymptotes to a space of constant negative curvature called anti de-Sitter or AdS) is mapped holographically onto the boundary of this space, in terms of a 4-dimensional QCD-like gauge theory, without gravity. I will sketch the holographic description of "quarks", and of bound states like "mesons" and "baryons", which live in the boundary theory, in terms of bulk string excitations. I will conclude with a description of the duality at finite temperature, and describe some of its implications for the behavior of the QCD-like strongly coupled plasma.