Introduction to the AdS/CFT Correspondence

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

Hora?iu N?stase (Author)

9781107085855, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 10 September 2015

453 pages, 43 b/w illus.
25.3 x 19.3 x 2.4 cm, 1.15 kg

'A pedagogical book on this sophisticated and rapidly developing subject is clearly welcome. Hora?iu N?stase's very readable Introduction to the AdS/CFT Correspondence is such a book. Written by a well-known expert on the AdS/CFT correspondence and its applications, the book is intended for graduate students and researchers who want to be acquainted with the new holographic techniques. … many details presented by N?stase are not available in existing books … [The] book is written in a student-friendly style with detailed explanations and many worked-out calculations. Each chapter ends with a summary of important concepts and a set of exercises. It will certainly be of great help both to those teaching an advanced graduate course on the AdS/CFT correspondence and to students or researchers planning to learn it by themselves. Introduction to AdS/CFT Correspondence is a valuable addition to the small set of existing books on the topic.' Alfonso V. Ramallo, Physics Today

Providing a pedagogical introduction to the rapidly developing field of AdS/CFT correspondence, this is one of the first texts to provide an accessible introduction to all the necessary concepts needed to engage with the methods, tools and applications of AdS/CFT. Without assuming anything beyond an introductory course in quantum field theory, it begins by guiding the reader through the basic concepts of field theory and gauge theory, general relativity, supersymmetry, supergravity, string theory and conformal field theory, before moving on to give a clear and rigorous account of AdS/CFT correspondence. The final section discusses the more specialised applications, including QCD, quark-gluon plasma and condensed matter. This book is self-contained and learner-focused, featuring numerous exercises and examples. It is essential reading for both students and researchers across the fields of particle, nuclear and condensed matter physics.

Preface
Introduction
Part I. Background: 1. Elements of quantum field theory and gauge theory
2. Basics of general relativity. Anti-de Sitter space
3. Basics of supersymmetry
4. Basics of supergravity
5. Kaluza–Klein dimensional reduction
6. Black holes and p-branes
7. String theory actions and spectra
8. Elements of conformal field theory
9. D-branes
Part II. Basics of AdS/CFT for N = 4 SYM vs AdS5 × S5: 10. The AdS/CFT correspondence: motivation, definition and spectra
11. Witten prescription and 3-point correlator calculations
12. Holography in Lorentzian signature: Poincaré and global
13. Solitonic objects in AdS/CFT
14. Quarks and the Wilson loop
15. Finite temperature and N = 4 SYM plasmas
16. Scattering processes and gravitational shockwave limit
17. The pp-wave correspondence
18. Spin chains
Part III. AdS/CFT Developments and Gauge-Gravity Dualities: 19. Other conformal cases
20. The 3 dimensional ABJM model vs. AdS4 × CP3
21. Gravity duals
22. Holographic renormalization
23. RG flow between fixed points
24. Phenomenological gauge-gravity duality I: AdS/QCD
25. Phenomenological gauge-gravity duality II: AdS/CMT
26. Gluon scattering: the Alday–Maldacena prescription
27. Holographic entanglement entropy: the Ryu–Takayanagi prescription.

Subject Areas: Relativity physics [PHR], Particle & high-energy physics [PHP], Nuclear physics [PHN], Physics [PH], Cosmology & the universe [PGK], Mathematics & science [P]