One of the still big problems in the Standard Model of particle physics is the problem of confinement. Quarks or other coloured particles have never been observed in isolation. Quarks are only observed in colour neutral bound states. The strong interactions are described using a Yang-Mills theory. These type of theories exhibits asymptotic freedom, i.e. the coupling is weak at high energies. This means that the theory is perturbative at high energies only. Understanding quark confinement requires knowledge of the non perturbative regime. One attempt has been to identify the proper order parameters for describing the low energy limit and then to write down effective actions in terms of these order parameters. We discuss one possible scenario for confinement and the effective models constructed with this as inspiration. Further we discuss solitons in these models and their properties. Yang-Mills theory has also become important in the context of string theory. According to the AdS/CFT correspondence string theory in AdS5×S5 is dual to four dimensional Yang-Mills with four supersymmetries. The duality relate the non perturbative regime of one of the theories to the perturbative regime of the other. This makes it in general hard to test this conjecture. For a special type of solutions it is however possible to use a perturbative expansion in both theories. We discuss this type of solutions and in particular we discuss a method, the Bethe ansatz, to find the solutions on the gauge theory side.

Cette thèse est consacrée à l'étude de systèmes quantiques intégrables tels des chaînes de spins, des théories de champs à 1+1 dimensions, et la dualité AdS/CFT. Cette dualité AdS/CFT est une conjecture, émise à la fin du siècle dernier, qui relie notamment le régime non-perturbatif d'une théorie de jauge superconforme (nommée N =4 super Yang- Mills) au régime perturbatif d'une théorie de cordes dans un espace à 10 dimensions (de géométrie AdS5×S5). Ce manuscrit explore les similarités entre des chaînes de spins intégrables et des théories de champs intégrables, tels Super Yang Mills. Il commence par une étude ap- profondie des chaînes de spins intégrables pour y construire explicitement un "flot de Bäcklund" et des "opérateurs Q" polynômiaux, qui permettent de diagonaliser le Hamil- tonien. Des théories de champs intégrables sont ensuite étudiées et des "fonctions Q" sont obtenues, qui sont l'analogue des opérateurs Q construits pour les chaînes de spins. Il apparaît que de nombreuses informations sont contenue dans les propriétés analytiques des fonctions Q. Cela permet d'aboutir, dans le cadre de l'ansatz de Bethe thermody- namique, à un nombre fini d'équations non-linéaires intégrales qui encode le spectre des niveaux d'énergie de la théorie considérée (en taille finie). Ce système d'équations est équivalent au système infini d'équations, connu sous le nom de système Y, qui dans le cas de la dualité AdS/CFT avait été conjecturé assez récemment.

Using the AdS/CFT correspondence, we study the anisotropic transport properties of both supersymmetric and non-supersymmetric matter fields on (2+1)-dimensional defects coupled to a (3+1)-dimensional N=4 SYM "heat bath". We address on the one hand the purely conformal defect where the only non-vanishing background field that we turn on is a "topological", parameter parametrizing the impact on the bulk. On the other hand we also address the case of a finite external background magnetic field, finite net charge density and finite mass. We find in the purely conformal limit that the system possesses a conduction threshold given by the wave number of the perturbation and that the charge transport arises from a quasiparticle spectrum which is consistent with an intuitive picture where the defect acquires a finite width in the direction of the SYM bulk. We also examine finite-coupling modifications arising from higher derivative interactions in the probe brane action. In the case of finite density, mass and magnetic field, our results generalize the conformal case. We discover at high frequencies a spectrum of quasiparticle resonances due to the magnetic field and finite density and at small frequencies a Drude-like expansion around the DC limit. Both of these regimes display many generic features and some features that we attribute to strong coupling, such as a minimum DC conductivity and an unusual behavior of the "cyclotron" and plasmon frequencies, which become correlated to the resonances found in the conformal case. We further study the hydrodynamic regime and the relaxation properties, in which the system displays a set of different possible transitions to the collisionless regime. The mass dependence can be cast in two regimes: a generic relativistic behavior dominated by the UV and a non-linear hydrodynamic behavior dominated by the IR. In the massless case, we also extend earlier results to find an interesting duality under the transformation of the conductivity and the exchange of density and magnetic field. Furthermore, we look at the thermodynamics and the phase diagram, which reproduces general features found earlier in 3+1 dimensional systems and demonstrates stability in the relevant phase.

Using the AdS/CFT correspondence, we study the anisotropic transport properties of both supersymmetric and non-supersymmetric matter fields on (2+1)-dimensional defects coupled to a (3+1)-dimensional N=4 SYM "heat bath". We address on the one hand the purely conformal defect where the only non-vanishing background field that we turn on is a "topological", parameter parametrizing the impact on the bulk. On the other hand we also address the case of a finite external background magnetic field, finite net charge density and finite mass. We find in the purely conformal limit that the system possesses a conduction threshold given by the wave number of the perturbation and that the charge transport arises from a quasiparticle spectrum which is consistent with an intuitive picture where the defect acquires a finite width in the direction of the SYM bulk. We also examine finite-coupling modifications arising from higher derivative interactions in the probe brane action. In the case of finite density, mass and magnetic field, our results generalize the conformal case. We discover at high frequencies a spectrum of quasiparticle resonances due to the magnetic field and finite density and at small frequencies a Drude-like expansion around the DC limit. Both of these regimes display many generic features and some features that we attribute to strong coupling, such as a minimum DC conductivity and an unusual behavior of the "cyclotron" and plasmon frequencies, which become correlated to the resonances found in the conformal case. We further study the hydrodynamic regime and the relaxation properties, in which the system displays a set of different possible transitions to the collisionless regime. The mass dependence can be cast in two regimes: a generic relativistic behavior dominated by the UV and a non-linear hydrodynamic behavior dominated by the IR. In the massless case, we also extend earlier results to find an interesting duality under the transformation of the conductivity and the exchange of density and magnetic field. Furthermore, we look at the thermodynamics and the phase diagram, which reproduces general features found earlier in 3+1 dimensional systems and demonstrates stability in the relevant phase.

Nous présentons dans cette thèse deux applications de la correspondance AdS/CFT. La première est l'analyse des propriétés de transport des modes fermioniques dans les théories des champs fortement couplées. Nous étudions en particulier les propriétés de la constante de diffusion du phonino dans N=4 SYM à densité nulle ou finie. Nous trouvons que la constante de diffusion dépend du potentiel chimique et par conséquent qu'elle n'a pas une propriété d'universalité similaire à celle de la viscosité de cisaillement. La deuxième application traite du comportement de l'entropie d'intrication dans des théories qui contiennent des degrés de liberté massifs. Pour identifier les contributions de la masse à l'entropie d'intrication nous l'évaluons dans un système comprenant des branes de saveur et nous identifions certains des termes dépendants de la masse. Nous trouvons que le coefficient du terme logarithmique est différent de celui calculé dans la théorie des champs libre, un résultat qui est qualitativement en accord avec de résultats holographique antérieurs. De plus nous calculons d'autres termes, prédits dans la théorie des champs, mais qui n'ont pas été identifiés auparavant dans un système holographique.

Différents environnements gravitationnels à 4 dimensions sont abordés dans ce thése : instantons gravitationnels et trous noirs aussi bien en relativité générale qu'en supergravité. La recherche de nouvelles solutions en relativité est un véritable défi. Cette tâche est nettement simplifiée dans l'hypothèse où l'on dispose d'un tenseur de Riemann auto-dual. Ces solutions sont dites instantons gravitationnels. L'évolution des instantons est décrite par un flot géométrique. Ce lien est analysé en détail, en focalisant l'attention sur le rôle du tensor de Ricci dans le flot géométrique. En espace de type Anti-de-Sitter (AdS), trouver de nouveaux trous noirs avec symétrie axiale est une question toujours ouverte. Cette question peut être posée dans le contexte des fluides holographiques. Trous noirs en rotation correspondent à des fluides aux vorticités particulières. En imposant que la solution soit régulière sur l'horizon, le fluide acquiert la forme d'un fluide parfait. Des conditions nécessaires afin que la correspondence entre solution gravitationnelle et théorie hydrodynamique, qui se fait usuellement par un développement perturbatif, puisse être ressommé et pour qu'on puisse trouver des solutions exactes de la relativité ont etées trouvées. Le comptage de l'entropie des trous noirs dans des espaces AdS ne fait toujours pas partie des résultats connus. Dans le cas des solutions en rotation des théories de supergravité N=2, une relation entre trous noirs extremaux non-BPS en espace plat et trous noirs BPS en espace AdS a été mise au point. La connexion entre cettes solutions donne des informations sur le comptage microscopique.

As an operational approach to the Bekenstein-Hawking formula S_{BH}=A/4l_{Pl}^{2} for the black hole entropy, we consider the reversible contraction of a spinning thin shell to its event horizon and find that its thermodynamic entropy approaches $S_{\mathrm{BH}}$. In this sense the shell, called a "black shell", imitates and is externally indistinguishable from a black hole. Our work is a generalization of the previous result [10] for the spherical case. We assume the exterior space-time of the shell is given by the Kerr metric and match it to two different interior metrics, a vacuum one and a non-vacuum one. We find the vacuum interior embedding breaks down for fast spinning shells. The mechanism is not clear and worth further exploring. We also examine the case of a Kerr-AdS exterior, without trying to find a detailed interior solution. We expect the same behavior of the shell when the horizon limit is approached.

This thesis deals with different aspects of string and /p/-brane theories. One of the motivations for string theory is to unify the forces in nature and produce a quantum theory of gravity. /p/-branes and related objects arise in string theory and are related to a non-perturbative definition of the theory. The results of this thesis might help in understanding string theory better. The first part of the thesis introduces and discusses relevant topics for the second part of the thesis which consists of five papers. In the three first papers we develop and treat a perturbative approach to relativistic /p/-branes around stretched geometries. The unperturbed theory is described by a string- or particle-like theory. The theory is solved, within perturbation theory, by constructing successive canonical transformations which map the theory to the unperturbed one order by order. The result is used to define a quantum theory which requires for consistency d = 25 + p dimensions for the bosonic /p/-branes and d = 11 for the supermembrane. This is one of the first quantum results for extended objects beyond string theory and is a confirmation of the expectation of an eleven-dimensional quantum membrane. The two last papers deal with a gauged WZNW-approach to strings moving on non-trivial space-times. The groups used in the formulation of these models are connected to Hermitian symmetric spaces of non-compact type. We have found that the GKO-construction does not yield a unitary spectrum. We will show that there exists, however, a different approach, the BRST approach, which gives unitarity under certain conditions. This is the first example of a difference between the GKO- and BRST construction. This is one of the first proofs of unitarity of a string theory in a non-trivial non-compact space-time. Furthermore, new critical string theories in dimensions less then 26 or 10 is found for the bosonic and supersymmetric string, respectively.

As an operational approach to the Bekenstein-Hawking formula S_{BH}=A/4l_{Pl}^{2} for the black hole entropy, we consider the reversible contraction of a spinning thin shell to its event horizon and find that its thermodynamic entropy approaches $S_{\mathrm{BH}}$. In this sense the shell, called a "black shell", imitates and is externally indistinguishable from a black hole. Our work is a generalization of the previous result [10] for the spherical case. We assume the exterior space-time of the shell is given by the Kerr metric and match it to two different interior metrics, a vacuum one and a non-vacuum one. We find the vacuum interior embedding breaks down for fast spinning shells. The mechanism is not clear and worth further exploring. We also examine the case of a Kerr-AdS exterior, without trying to find a detailed interior solution. We expect the same behavior of the shell when the horizon limit is approached.

Conformal Field Theories (CFT) are Quantum Field Theories characterized by enhanced (conformal) symmetries. They are interesting to Theoretical Physicists because they occur at critical points in phase transitions of various systems and also in the world sheet formulation of String Theory. CFTs allow Operator Product Expansion (OPE) in their correlators. The idea of Conformal Bootstrap is to solely use the conformal symmetries and crossing symmetry in the OPE to solve a conformal led theory and not explicitly use a lagrangian. Solving a CFT is equivalent to obtaining the anomalous dimensions and OPE coe client’s of the operators. The work presented in this thesis shows how ideas of bootstrap can be used to get analytic results for dimensions and OPE coe client’s of various operators in CFTs. In the conventional bootstrap program, the OPE in the direct (s-) channel is compared with the OPE of a crossed (t-) channel. This requirement of crossing symmetry is called the bootstrap equation. The flow of logic is somewhat reversed in the \new" idea that is formulated in this thesis. The trick is to expand a CFT correlator in terms of Witten diagrams, in all channels. This is a manifestly crossing symmetric description, and is in contrast to the usual expansion in terms of conformal blocks, which is in only one channel. For convenience we work with the Mellin transforms of Witten diagrams. For consistency of the Witten diagrams expansion with the conformal block expansion in a certain channel, we require the satisfaction of some equations, which we call the bootstrap equations in Mellin space. This scheme was rest chalked out by Polyakov in 1973, where he proposed the use of \unitary amplitudes" to expand a correlator. The unitary amplitudes had similar symmetry and analytic properties as the Witten diagrams. Even though he did not take his idea forward, replacing unitary amplitudes with Witten diagrams seems to work very well for obtaining analytic results. The working of bootstrap equations in Mellin space is demonstrated for the 4 Wilson-Fisher fixed point in d = 4 , O(N) theory at Wilson-Fisher point (in d = 4 ), as well as with large N (in general d), and large spin operators in strongly coupled and weakly coupled theories. For the case of global symmetry we have also analysed the somewhat unexplored case of cubic anisotropy. The results are obtained as perturbative series in , 1=N, or 1=` as applicable, and they are consistent with known results in literature. We also obtain various new results, for instance the OPE coe client’s of general higher spin operators. These results are otherwise very di cult to end from Feynman diagrams, but in this approach they come out very simply, essentially by solving some algebraic equations. We also show the use of the conventional bootstrap strategy, for analytically obtaining anomalous dimensions of large spin operators having higher twists, in a O(N) theory, by working in the light cone limit. One can question the validity of the proposal of using Witten diagrams to expand a correlator. One such issue is convergence of the sum over Witten diagrams. Convergence can be shown to hold for the operator spectrum we have worked with. Also there are operators that might upset convergence under some conditions. Resolutions of such cases, and ways to improve convergence have also been discussed. The conventional bootstrap method has been very successful in giving numerical results in nonpertur-bative CFTs, like the 3 dimensional Ising model. Numerical analysis can also be made possible with the new bootstrap in Mellin space approach. Having a convergent basis of expansion improves the prospect of numeric. The goal is to formulate a bootstrap scheme that, under a single framework, can make most of all the CFT properties. It should be systematic, so that one can obtain anomalous dimensions and OPE coe client’s of all operators up to any desired order, and works for all strongly/weakly coupled and perturbative/nonpertur-bative CFTS, both analytically and numerically. Finally, the use of Witten diagrams also indicates the possibility of Ising CFT or weakly coupled CFTs having connections with AdS/CFT, and hence String Theory. It does seem we have a right direction towards achieving our goal.