Understanding strongly coupled non-Abelian plasmas using the gauge/gravity duality

Abstract

The quark gluon plasma (QGP), formed in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion colisions at RHIC and at the LHC, behaves as nearly perfect fluid. This indicates that the QGP is a strongly coupled system, which suggests that a holographic description via the AdS/CFT correspondence as a weakly coupled gravitational theory may be possible. The goal of this project is to perform quantitative studies of gravitational dual models that capture the thermodynamical and transport properties of the QGP. Specifically, in this thesis we shalla) Use Wilson loops to estimate the thermal width of heavy quark bound states in the QGP and their dependence on the relative velocity of the heavy meson with respect to the plasma;b) Study dissipative relativistic fluids to determine the correct equations of motion that describe the hydrodynamical behavior of the QGPc) Find the necessary conditions to obtain a gravitational theory that is dual to an asymptotically free gauge theory in 4 dimensions. This will allow us to narrow down the class of dual theories that can adequately describe the QGP and make predictions that can be experimentally verified using heavy ion collisions.