Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Quasinormal modes of plane-symmetric anti-de Sitter (AdS) black holes in d spacetime dimensions are investigated. Following the gauge invariant prescription developed by Kodama, Ishibashi and Seto (2000), fundamental equations for gravitational perturbation in such a background are constructed. Within such a prescription, metric perturbations naturally split into three disjoint classes. Namely, tensor, vector and scalar perturbations. However, different gauge invariant quantities are chosen in the present work, because they are more suited to the particular boundary conditions usually imposed to find quasinormal modes in AdS spacetimes than those used by Kodama, Ishibashi and Seto. In particular, the quantities used here present also the so called hydrodynamic modes, i. e., shear modes for vector perturbations and sound wave modes for the scalar ones, what is not found using the former quantities. It is also shown that there is just one shear mode, which does not depend upon the number of spacetime dimensions (d). Moreover, it is also found a general expression for the sound wave modes in terms of the number of the parameter d for scalar perturbations, and that there is no such a hydrodynamic mode for the tensor sector. Horowitz-Hubeny power series method is used in numerical analysis to find the dispersion relations for the first few quasinormal modes, and also for the hydrodynamic modes. This analysis is performed for five and six spacetime dimensions in the case of tensor perturbations, and for four, five and six dimensions in the cases of vector and scalar perturbations. The dispersion relations of regular modes present the same general behavior for all kinds of perturbations, Re(w) → q and Im(w) → 0 in the limit q → ∞, where w and q are the normalized frequency and the normalized wave number, respectively. / Investiga-se os modos quase-normais gravitacionais de buracos negros plano-simétricos anti-de Sitter em d dimensões, cuja geometria das seções espaciais é plana e cuja topologia pode ser plana, cilíndrica ou toroidal. Deduz-se equações fundamentais de perturbação gravitacional para este background, seguindo o formalismo invariante de gauge desenvolvido por Kodama, Ishibashi e Seto (2000), segundo o qual as perturbações métricas são naturalmente separadas em três setores ortogonais: tensorial, vetorial e escalar. Entretanto, são escolhidas diferentes quantidades invariantes de gauge tais que sob condições de contorno apropriadas fornecem os modos quase-normais hidrodinâmicos do buraco negro em questão. Particularmente, no limite hidrodinâmico, os modos de cisalhamento nas perturbações gravitacionais vetoriais e modos de onda sonora nas perturbações escalares são encontrados explicitamente. Mostra-se que o modo de cisalhamento é único e independe do número de dimensões, apresenta-se uma expressão para o modo de onda sonora válida para qualquer dimensão e verifica-se que as perturbações gravitacionais tensoriais não apresentam modos hidrodinâmicos. Utiliza-se o método de Horowitz-Hubeny para calcular numericamente os primeiros modos quase-normais comuns para cada setor de perturbação e apresentam-se as respectivas relações de dispersão Re(w) × q e Im(w)×q, onde w são as freqüências quase-normais e q é o número de onda normalizados. Também obtêm-se numericamente os modos hidrodinâmicos e suas relações de dispersão. Os modos quase-normais das perturbações tensoriais são calculados para buracos negros plano-simétricos anti-de Sitter em cinco e seis dimensões, e os modos quase-normais das perturbações vetoriais e escalares são calculados para buracos negros em quatro, cinco e seis dimensões. Observa-se que as relações de dispersão apresentam um comportamento geral onde Re(w) → q e Im(w) → 0 conforme q → ∞ independentemente do tipo de perturbação, número de dimensões e do modo quase-normal analisado.

La correspondance AdS/CFT est la première réalisation précise de la dualité jauge/gravité. Jusqu’à maintenant la correspondance AdS/CFT reste une conjecture. La dualité de N = 4 SYM et la théorie des cordes est un exemple le plus notable de correspondance AdS/CFT. Un des obstacles principaux à l’explorer est le fait que le régime de couplage faible pour la théorie de jauge est le régime de couplage fort pour la théorie des cordes et vice versa. Par conséquent, aussi longtemps que les méthodes perturbatives sont appliquées, on ne peut pas comparer les observables de deux cotés de la correspondance directement en dehors de quelques cas particuliers. A ce stade, l’énorme symétrie de N = 4 SYM joue un rôle important en permettant le calcul exact des observables de la théorie au moins dans la limite planaire. Cette thèse est consacrée au calcul des fonctions à trois, l’un des principaux observables de N = 4 SYM, et est composée de deux parties. Dans la première partie nous considérons l’approche générale pour le calcul des fonctions à trois points sur la base de soi-disant vertex de spin, qui est inspiré de la théorie de champs des cordes. Dans la deuxième partie, nous considérons un type spécifique de fonctions à trois points appelés lourd-lourd-léger, qui sont caractérisés par la propriété que la longueur de l’un des opérateurs est beaucoup plus petite des longueurs de deux autres. Il s’avère que ces fonctions de corrélations peuvent être identifiées à des facteurs de forme diagonaux et ainsi on peut appliquer les résultats concernant les facteurs de forme. / N=4 SYM theory has been drawing the attention of a lot of physicists during two last decades mainly due to the two aspects: AdS/CFT correspondence and integrability. AdS/CFT correspondence is the first precise realization of the gauge/string duality whose history starts in the 60's, when a string theory was considered as a candidate for describing the strong interactions. In 1997 Maldacena made a proposal about the duality between certain conformal field theories (CFT) and string theories defined on the product of AdS space and some compact manifold, which implies a one to one map between the observables of the gauge and string counterparts. Up to now AdS/CFT correspondence still remains a conjecture. The duality of N=4 SYM and the appropriate string counterpart is the most notable example of the AdS/CFT correspondence. One of the main obstructions to exploring it is the fact that weak coupling regime for the gauge theory is the strong coupling regime for the string theory and vice versa. Therefore as long as perturbative methods are applied, one can not compare the observables of dual counterparts directly apart from some specific cases. At this point the huge symmetry of N=4 SYM plays an important role allowing exact computation of the theory observables at least in the planar limit. This property of the theory is called integrability. The observables of the N=4 SYM are Wilson loops and correlation functions built out of gauge invariant operators. The space-time dependence of the two- and three-point correlators is fixed by the conformal symmetry up to some parameters: dimensions of the operators in the case of two-point functions and dimensions of the operators and structure constants in the case of three-point functions. It's commonly accepted to refer to the problem of finding the dimensions of the operators as the spectral problem. On the classical level the operator dimension is equal to the sum of the dimensions of the fundamental fields out of which the operator is composed. When the interaction is turned on, the conformal dimension gets quantum correction. In order to compute three-point functions, apart from the conformal dimensions of corresponding operators one needs to compute the structure constants. In CFT computation of the higher-point correlators eventually can be reduced to computation of two- and three-point functions by means of the operator product expansion. Therefore two- and three-point functions appear to be building blocks of any correlator of the theory. This thesis is devoted to computation of three-point functions and consists of two parts. In the first part we consider the general approach for computing three-point functions based on the so-called spin vertex, which is inspired from the string field theory. In the second part we consider a specific kind of three-point functions called heavy-heavy-light, which are characterized by the property that the length of one of the operators is much smaller the lengthes of other two. It happens that this kind of correlators can be considered as diagonal form factors which supposes that in this case one can apply the results obtained in the form factor theory.

Integrabilität hat sich als ein mächtiges Werkzeug zur Berechnung von Observablen in der AdS/CFT-Korrespondenz erwiesen. Zunächst für das planare Spektralproblem entdeckt, wurden auch Methoden zur Berechnung von Mehrpunktfunktionen entwickelt. In dieser Arbeit wird diese Korrespondenz für AdS5/CFT4 und AdS3/CFT2 betrachtet mit dem Ziel, den integrablen Formalismus zu erweitern. Teil I behandelt Integrabilität in der N=4 SYM-Theorie, wo der Hexagon-Formalismus die Berechnung von Dreipunktfunktionen ermöglicht. Dazu wird der Korrelator in zwei hexagonale Stücke zerlegt. Die lokalen Operatoren müssen im Spinkettenbild als Bethe-Zustand zerschnitten und ein verschränkter Zustand konstruiert werden. Der Hexagon-Formalismus wird hier auf Sektoren mit höherem Rang erweitert, wobei die operatorartige Struktur erhalten und nur minimale Informationen aus dem geschachtelten Bethe-Ansatz genutzt werden. Weiterhin erlaubt die Betrachtung von Doppelanregungen im Spinkettenbild die Realisierung aller Felder der N=4 SYM-Theorie. Der chirale Yang-Mills-Feldstärketensor wird aus vier Fermionen in führender Ordnung der Kopplung konstruiert, eine Methode zur Einsetzung des Lagrangeoperators im Hexagon-Formalismus wird vorgeschlagen und ein erster Test durchgeführt. Teil II behandelt den Hexagon-Formalismus für Superstrings auf AdS3xS3xT4 Hintergründen mit einer Mischung von Ramond-Ramond und Neveu-Schwarz-Neveu-Schwarz Flüssen. Der Formfaktor wird für Ein- und Zwei-Teilchen-Zustände konstruiert und lässt sich für viele Teilchen unter Nutzung der S Matrix verallgemeinern. Schließlich werden die thermodynamischen Bethe-Ansatz (TBA)-Gleichungen betrachtet, die von Frolov und Sfondrini für das Spektrum von Strings auf reinem Ramond-Ramond AdS3xS3xT4 Hintergrund konstruiert wurden. Bei schwacher Kopplung lassen sich die TBA-Gleichungen erheblich vereinfachen. Der Beitrag zu den anomalen Dimensionen in führender Ordnung ist auf masselose Anregungen zurückzuführen. / Integrability proved to be a powerful tool to calculate observables in the AdS/CFT correspondence. At first discovered in the planar spectral problem, methods have since been devised for calculating higher-point functions as well. In this thesis we will consider two instances of the correspondence, that is AdS5/CFT4 as well as AdS3/CFT2, aiming at extending the integrability framework. In Part I we focus on integrability in N=4 SYM theory, where the hexagon form factor provides a formalism to calculate three-point functions. For this, the correlator is cut into two hexagonal patches. Considering the local operators in the spin chain picture, the Bethe states also need to be cut, resulting in an entangled state. In this thesis, we extend the hexagon formalism to higher-rank sectors, while preserving its operator-like structure and importing a minimum of information from the nested Bethe ansatz. Moreover, considering double excitations in the spin chain picture allows us to accommodate for the full set of fields in N=4 SYM theory. We build the chiral Yang-Mills field strength tensor from four fermions at leading order in the coupling, put forward a Lagrangian insertion method in the hexagon formalism and perform a first test. In Part II we propose a hexagon formalism for superstrings in AdS3×S3×T4 backgrounds with an arbitrary mixture or Ramond-Ramond and Neveu-Schwarz-Neveu-Schwarz fluxes. We bootstrap the hexagon form factor for one- and two-particle states from symmetry and give a proposal for the evaluation of many particle states in terms of the theorie's S matrix. Finally, we consider the thermodynamic Bethe ansatz (TBA) equations constructed by Frolov and Sfondrini for the spectrum of strings on the pure-Ramond-Ramond AdS3×S3×T4 background. Here we study the small tension limit of the mirror TBA equations and find that the equations simplify considerably. We observe that the leading-order contribution to the anomalous dimensions is due to massless excitations.

One of the phenomenal results emerging from string theory is the AdS/CFT correspondence or gauge-gravity duality: In certain cases a theory of gravity is equivalent to a "dual" gauge theory, very similar to the one describing non-gravitational interactions of fundamental subatomic particles. A difficult problem on one side can be mapped to a simpler and solvable problem on the other side using this correspondence. Thus one of the theories can be understood better using the other. The mapping between theories of gravity and gauge theories has led to new approaches to building models of particle physics from string theory. One of the important features to model is the phenomenon of confinement present in strong interaction of particle physics. This feature is not present in the gauge theory arising in the simplest of the examples of the duality. However this N = 4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills gauge theory enjoys the property of being integrable, i.e. it can be exactly solved in terms of conserved charges. It is expected that if a more realistic theory turns out to be integrable, solvability of the theory would lead to simple analytical expressions for quantities like masses of the hadrons in the theory. In this thesis we show that the existing models of confinement are all nonintegrable--such simple analytic expressions cannot be obtained. We moreover show that these nonintegrable systems also exhibit features of chaotic dynamical systems, namely, sensitivity to initial conditions and a typical route of transition to chaos. We proceed to study the quantum mechanics of these systems and check whether their properties match those of chaotic quantum systems. Interestingly, the distribution of the spacing of meson excitations measured in the laboratory have been found to match with level-spacing distribution of typical quantum chaotic systems. We find agreement of this distribution with models of confining strong interactions, conforming these as viable models of particle physics arising from string theory.

We investigate phase transitions in holographic models of QCD. In chapter I, we explore the effect of constant external U(1) fields on the physics of chiral symmetry breaking, as realized in the D3/D7 model. We discover that this model exhibits the phenomenon of magnetic catalysis, which is what one would expect from a weakly coupled field theory intuition. In chapter II, we continue exploring the effect of external U(1) fields but now on the backreacted D3/D7 model, where the backreaction is obtained via a smearing procedure. We again find the magnetic catalysis effect, however the results differ from the previous case depending on the backreaction parameters. In chapter III, we investigate lattices of instantons in the D4/D8 model of chiral symmetry breaking. These instanton lattices can change dimensionality, and in particular we investigate the 1D [right arrow] 2D transition as a simpler case of the more complicated 3D [right arrow] 4D transition which is conjectured to be holographically dual to the baryonic to quarkyonic phase transition. Besides this interpretation, one could also view this as a hypothetical condensed matter system. We have a lattice of instantons dominated by two-body forces, whose interactions depend not only on their mutual distance in physical space but also on their relative orientations in the internal isospace. We obtain a rich variety of instanton crystals whose description could serve to be useful beyond holography. / text

In the following thesis, I will conduct a thermodynamic analysis of the Taub-NUT spacetime in various dimensions, as well as show uses for Taub-NUT and other Hyper-Kahler spacetimes. <br /><br /> Thermodynamic analysis (by which I mean the calculation of the entropy and other thermodynamic quantities, and the analysis of these quantities) has in the past been done by use of background subtraction. The recent derivation of the (A)dS/CFT correspondences from String theory has allowed for easier and quicker analysis. I will use Taub-NUT space as a template to test these correspondences against the standard thermodynamic calculations (via the N&ouml;ether method), with (in the Taub-NUT-dS case especially) some very interesting results. <br /><br /> There is also interest in obtaining metrics in eleven dimensions that can be reduced down to ten dimensional string theory metrics. Taub-NUT and other Hyper-Kahler metrics already possess the form to easily facilitate the Kaluza-Klein reduction, and embedding such metrics into eleven dimensional metrics containing M2 or M5 branes produces metrics with interesting Dp-brane results.

In the first part of this thesis we study baryonic U(1) symmetries dual to Betti multiplets in the AdS_4/CFT_3 correspondence for M2 branes at Calabi-Yau four-fold singularities. Such short multiplets originate from the Kaluza-Klein compactification of eleven-dimensional supergravity on the corresponding Sasaki-Einstein seven-manifolds. Analysis of the boundary conditions for vector fields in AdS_4 allows for a choice where wrapped M5 brane states carrying non-zero charge under such symmetries can be considered. We begin by focusing on isolated toric singularities without vanishing six-cycles, which we classify, and propose for them field theory duals. We then study in detail the cone over the well-known Sasaki-Einstein space Q^111, which is a U(1) fibration over CP^1 x CP^1 x CP^1. The boundary conditions considered are dual to a CFT where the gauge group is U(1)^2 x SU(N)^4. We find agreement between the spectrum of gauge-invariant baryonic-type operators in this theory and M5 branes wrapping five-cycles in the Q^111 space. Moreover, the physics of vacua in which these symmetries are spontaneously broken precisely matches a dual gravity analysis involving resolutions of the singularity, where we are able to match condensates of the baryonic operators, Goldstone bosons and global strings. We then study the implications of turning on a closed three-form with non-zero periods through torsion three cycles in the Sasaki-Einstein manifold. This three-form, otherwise known as torsion G-flux, non-trivially affects the supergravity dual of Higgsing, and we show that the supergravity and field theory analyses precisely match in an example based on the Sasaki-Einstein manifold Y^1,2(CP^2), which is a S^3 bundle over CP^2. We then explain how the choice of M-theory circle in the background can result in exotic renormalization group flows in the dual field theory, and study this in detail for the Sasaki-Einstein manifold Y^1,2(CP^2). We also argue more generally that theories where the resolutions have six-cycles are expected to receive non-perturbative corrections from M5 brane instantons. We give a general formula relating the instanton action to normalizable harmonic two-forms, and compute it explicitly for the Sasaki-Einstein Q^222 example, which is a Z_2 orbifold of Q^111 in which the free Z_2 quotient is along the R-symmetry U(1) fibre. The holographic interpretation of such instantons is currently unclear. In the second part of this thesis we study the breaking of baryonic symmetries in the AdS_5/CFT_4 correspondence for D3 branes at Calabi-Yau three-fold singularities. This leads, for particular vacuum expectation values, to the emergence of non-anomalous baryonic symmetries during the renormalization group flow. We identify these vacuum expectation values with critical values of the NS-NS B-field moduli in the dual supergravity backgrounds. We study in detail the C^3/Z_3 orbifold theory and the dual supergravity backgrounds that correspond to the breaking of the emerging baryonic symmetries, and identify the expected Goldstone bosons and global strings in the infra-red. In doing so we confirm the claim that the emerging symmetries are indeed non-anomalous baryonic symmetries.

The discovery of integrability in planar N=4 super Yang-Mills and ABJM has enabled a precise study of AdS/CFT. In the past decade integrability has been successfully applied to the spectrum of anomalous dimensions, which can now be obtained at any value of the coupling. However, in order to solve conformal field theories one also needs to understand their structure constants. Recently, there has been great progress in this direction with the all-loop proposal of Basso, Komatsu and Vieira. But there is still much to understand, as it is not yet possible to use that formalism to find structure constants of short operators at strong coupling. It is important to study wrapping corrections and resum them as the TBA did for the spectrum. It is also crucial to obtain perturbative data that can be used to check if the all-loop proposal is correct or if there are new structures that need to be unveiled. In this thesis we compute several structure constants of short operators at strong coupling, including the structure constant of Konishi with half-BPS operators. Still at strong coupling, we find a relation between the building blocks of superstring amplitudes and the tensor structures allowed by conformal symmetry. We also consider the case of extremal correlation functions and the relation of their poles to mixing with double-trace operators. We also study three-point functions at weak coupling. We take the OPE limit in a four-point function of half-BPS operators in order to shed some light on the structure of five-loop wrapping corrections of the Hexagon form factors. Finally, we take the first steps in the generalization of the Hexagon programme to other theories. We find the non-extremal setup in ABJM and the residual symmetry that it preserves, which we use to fix the two-particle form factor and constrain the four-particle hexagon. Finally, we find that the Watson equations hint at a dressing phase that needs to be further investigated.

The most general AdS$_5 imes Y$ solutions of type IIB string theory that are AdS/CFT dual to superconformal field theories in four dimensions can be fruitfully described in the language of generalized geometry, a powerful hybrid of complex and symplectic geometry. We show that the cone over the compact five-manifold $Y$ is generalized Calabi-Yau and carries a generalized holomorphic Killing vector field $xi$, dual to the R-symmetry. Remarkably, this cone always admits a symplectic structure, which descends to a contact structure on $Y$, with $xi$ as Reeb vector field. Moreover, the contact volumes of $Y$, which can be computed by localization, encode essential properties of the dual CFT, such as the central charge and the conformal dimensions of BPS operators corresponding to wrapped D3-branes. We then define a notion of ``generalized Sasakian geometry'', which can be characterized by a simple differential system of three symplectic forms on a four-dimensional transverse space. The correct Reeb vector field for an AdS$_5$ solution within a given family of generalized Sasakian manifolds can be determined---without the need of the explicit metric---by a variational procedure. The relevant functional to minimize is the type IIB supergravity action restricted to the space of generalized Sasakian manifolds, which turns out to be just the contact volume. We conjecture that this contact volume is equal to the inverse of the trial central charge whose maximization determines the R-symmetry of the dual superconformal field theory. The power of this volume minimization is illustrated by the calculation of the contact volumes for a new infinite family of solutions, in perfect agreement with the results of $a$-maximization in the dual mass-deformed generalized conifold theories.

Orientador: Vilson Tonin Zanchin / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Federal do ABC, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Física, 2011