A Few Comments on

Gauge/String Duality
Igor Klebanov

Department of Physics

`10 Years of AdS/CFT’

Buenos Aires, December 21, 2007
 Stacking
g Non-
Non-Dilatonic D-
D-Branes
• A stack of N Dirichlet 3-
3-branes realizes N=4
supersymmetric SU(N) gauge theory in 4 dimensions.
It also creates a smooth extremal background of
10--d theory of closed superstrings with a constant
10
dilaton (artwork by E.Imeroni)

which for small r approaches

• As Juan Maldacena ppointed out 10 years

y ago,
g , the
small r limit is the low-
low-energy limit where the N=4
SYM theory on D- D-branes decouples from the bulk
closed strings
strings. This is AdS/CFT `inin a nutshell
nutshell.’
• Now,
Now 10 years later
later, `Anti-
`Anti
Anti-de Sitter
Anti- Sitter’ or
`AdS’ appears in a large (and growing?)
f ti off h
fraction hep-th abstracts.
hep- b t t
• Planar N=4 SYM is well on its wayy to
becoming `the Harmonic Oscillator of 4-
4-d
gauge theory.
theory ’
• Can we find `the Harmonic Oscillator of
confining
f 4-d gauge theory?’
4- h ’
 Dynamical
y Confinement
• Need AdS5 space up to logarithms in
the UV. Can get this by placing D3-
D3-
branes and wrapped
pp D5 D5--branes at
the tip of the conifold.
• The 10-
10-d geometry dual to the gauge
theory on these branes is the warped
deformed conifold (IK, Strassler)

• is the metric of the deformed

conifold, a simple Calabi-
Calabi-Yau space
defined by the following constraint on
4 complexl variables:
i bl
• The warp factor is finite at the `tip
tip of the
cigar’ t=0, as required for the
h(t) 2-8/3 γ I(t)
confinement: h(t)=

• The stringg tension, is proportional

p p to h(t)
()-
1/2 and is minimized at t=0. It blows up at
large
g t (near
( the boundary)
y) where space
p is
`near--AdS.’
`near
• Dimensional transmutation in the IR.
IR The
dynamically generated confinement scale
is
• Comparison
p of warp
p factors in the AdS, warped
p
conifold, and warped deformed conifold cases.
The warped conifold solution with e =0 has an
unacceptable naked singularity where h=0.h=0
• This is how string theory tells us that the chiral
symmetry breaking and dynamical scale
generation must take place through turning on
the deformation e. The finiteness of the warp
factor at rr=0
0 translates into confinement
confinement.
• The radius
radius--squared of the S3 at t=0 is gsM
i string
in i units.
i
• When gsM is large, g , the curvatures are
small everywhere, and the SUGRA solution
is reliable in `solving’g this confiningg gauge
g g
theory.
• Even when gsM is small,
small the curvature
gets small at large t (in the UV).
• In the dual
d al gauge
ga ge theory
theo the coupling
co pling
stays strong in the UV. It is not
asymptotically
t ti ll free,
f but
b t rather
th undergoes
d
a `cascading’ logarithmic RG flow that
produces
d SU(M) gauge theory
th in
i the
th IR.
IR
 Spectrum
p of Glueballs
• The confining string tension is

• The glueballs are the normalizable modes localized

near small t. In the supergravity limit (at large gs M)
their mass scale is

• The m2 of the nn--th radial excitation scales as

n2 Ts/(gs M) (see, for example the recent plots from
Benna,, Dymarsky,
y y, IK,, Soloviev).
) This is the behavior
found in Kaluza
Kaluza--Klein theory, but not in QCD.
• Glueballs with spin > 2 have much higher masses:
m2 ~ Ts
• This separation of scales is a new phenomenon found
for theories with reliable gravity duals.
• Need more models with dynamical
confinement
f and SUSY breaking.

• Possible applications of these models to new

physics include RS warped extra dimension
models KKLT moduli stabilization in flux
models,
compactifications, as well as warped throat D-
D-
brane cosmology (KKLMMT).
 Contact with the Observable World
• Thermal gauge/string dualities are being used to
model QCD above deconfinement temperature and
to compare with Heavy-
Heavy-Ion collider experiments.
M
Many successes have
h already
l d been b achieved,
hi d e.g.,
the observed low shear viscosity appears naturally
via AdS/CFT. Policastro,
Policastro Son
Son, Starinets

• Bottom--up model building in warped 5 dimensions

Bottom
((AdS/QCD)
/Q ) has provided
p new fruitful ways
y to look
at low-
low-energy hadron physics. Erlich et al, Da Rold, Pomarol,
Brodsky et al, …
• Large N M2
M2--brane theory at finite T and chemical
potential has shed light on properties of
superconductors near Tc. Herzog et al, Hartnoll et al.
• More generally, there exists a large class
of AdS4/CFT
/ 3 dualities that are not yyet
well--understood. Finding 3-
well 3-d fixed points
in lattice/condensed
/ matter systems
y that
have AdS4 duals is a good goal. For large
N Wilson-
Wilson-Fisher fixed points it was
proposed that the dual is a higher
higher--spin
gauge theory in AdS4. IK, Polyakov
• Another developing contact between
AdS/CFT and condensed matter physics is
the Entanglement Entropy. Ryu, Takayanagi
 Lessons
L for
f the
th F
Future
t ?
• I tried
t i d searching
hi forf them
th in
i the
th pastt history…
hi t
• The original spirit of D-
D-brane/black hole
correspondence was: use D- D-branes to explain
`black hole microstates.’ This led to quick
success for some specially constructed black
holes. Strominger, Vafa; Callan, Maldacena; …
• But soon various puzzles appeared, like the ¾
reduction in the 3- 3-brane entropy, py, or the N3
degrees of freedom for N coincident M5- M5-branes.
 T i Things
Turning Thi Around
A d!
• Instead of using D-
D-branes to explain black holes,
holes
use black holes to make predictions about
theories on D-
D-branes,
branes i.e.
i e strongly coupled
gauge theories.
• This has opened a whole new window on
aspects of gauge theory that were previously
inaccessible. In this p
picture the extra dimensions
of string or M-
M-theory neatly fit with the
observable dimensions to produce new
geometrical pictures of various phenomena in
strongly coupled gauge theory.
• So, AdS/CFT really was a paradigm shift.
• Yet, we have not been able to solve QCD or any
other asymptotically free gauge theory.
• For a simple reason: when the coupling in such
theories becomes weak in the UV
UV, curvature is
expected to get large. The machinery of
Einstein’s
Einstein s GR is not enough
enough. We would need
much more sophisticated string theoretic
machinery to extract something precise this
way.
• This is an important project which may take a
long time…
T
Turn Thi
Things Around
A d Yet
Y t Again
A i ?
• Since QCD does not seem to want to be solved
this way,
way why force it? We understand it pretty
well anyway…
• Rather let us hope that Nature will present us
Rather,
with a gift of new physics that is `easy’ from the
point of view of gauge/string dualities
dualities, i.e.
i e is
described by weakly curved string backgrounds.
• F th understanding
Further d t di off generic i features
f t off
such theories is a good goal.
• One such generic feature is the large
separation of scales between bound states
with spin up to 2 and spin > 2. This is
found in the RS model (cut-
(cut-off AdS) and
extends to various other warped models.
• Similarly, we can search for characteristic
features of gauge/string dualities in the
sky: in models of D-
D-brane inflation, cosmic
strings
g (which
( are sometimes dual to
confining strings), etc.
• Let us follow the path where gauge/string
dualities are taking us, and surely the
wonderful
d f l journey willll continue.
• Ten More Years! Ten More Years! …