No Arabic abstract
We have recently shown that the ground state of ${cal N} = 4$, SU($N_{rm{tiny c}}$) super Yang--Mills coupled to $N_{rm{tiny f}} ll N_{rm{tiny c}}$ flavors, in the presence of non-zero isospin and R-symmetry charges, is a supersymmetric, superfluid, color superconductor. The holographic description consists of $N_{rm{tiny f}}$ D7-brane probes in AdS$_5times$S$^5$ with electric and instantonic fields on their worldvolume. These correspond to fundamental strings and D3-branes dissolved on the D7-branes, respectively. Here we use this description to determine the spectrum of mesonic excitations. As expected for a charged superfluid we find non-relativistic, massless Goldstone modes. We also find extra ungapped modes that are not associated to the breaking of any global symmetries but to the supersymmetric nature of the ground state. If the quark mass is much smaller than the scale of spontaneous symmetry breaking a pseudo-Goldstone boson is also present. We highlight some new features that appear only for $N_{rm{tiny f}}> 2$. We show that, in the generic case of unequal R-symmetry charges, the dissolved strings and D3-branes blow up into a D5-brane supertube stretched between the D7-branes.
We use holography to study $d=4$, $mathcal{N}=4$, SU($N_{rm tiny{c}}$) super Yang-Mills coupled to $N_{rm tiny{F}} ll N_{rm tiny{c}}$ quark flavors. We place the theory at finite isospin density $n_{rm tiny{I}}$ by turning on an isospin chemical potential $mu_{rm tiny{I}}=M_{rm tiny{q}}$, with $M_{rm tiny{q}}$ the quark mass. We also turn on two R-symmetry charge densities $n_1=n_2$. We show that the ground state is a supersymmetric, superfluid, color superconductor, namely a finite-density state that preserves a fraction of supersymmetry in which part of the global symmetries and part of the gauge symmetries are spontaneously broken. The holographic description consists of $N_{rm tiny{F}}$ D7-brane probes in $mbox{AdS}_5 times mbox{S}^5$. The symmetry breaking is due to the dissolution of some D3-branes inside the D7-branes triggered by the electric field associated to the isospin charge. The massless spectrum contains Goldstone bosons and their fermionic superpartners. The massive spectrum contains long-lived, mesonic quasi-particles if $n_{rm tiny{I}} ll mu_{rm tiny{I}}^3$, and no quasi-particles otherwise. We discuss the possibility that, despite the presence of mass scales and charge densities in the theory, conformal and relativistic invariance arise as emergent symmetries in the infrared.
We analyze color superconductivity of one massive flavor quark matter at moderate baryon density with a spin-zero color-sextet condensate. The most general Higgs-type ground-state expectation value of the order parameter implies complete breakdown of the SU(3)xU(1) symmetry. However, both the conventional fourth-order polynomial effective bosonic description, and the NJL-type fermionic description in the mean-field approximation favor an enhanced SO(3) symmetry of the ground state. We ascribe this finding to the failure of the mean-field approximation and propose that a more sophisticated technique is needed.
I review applications of superconformal algebra. light-front holography, and an extended form of conformal symmetry to hadron spectroscopy and dynamics. QCD is not supersymmetrical in the traditional sense -- the QCD Lagrangian is based on quark and gluonic fields -- not squarks nor gluinos. However, its hadronic eigensolutions conform to a representation of superconformal algebra. and provide a unified Regge spectroscopy of meson, baryon, and tetraquarks with a universal Regge slope. The pion $q bar q$ eigenstate is composite but yet has zero mass for $m_q=0.$ Light-Front Holography also predicts the form of the nonperturbative QCD running coupling in agreement with the effective charge determined from measurements of the Bjorken sum rule. One also obtains viable predictions for hadron dynamics such as spacelike and timelike hadronic form factors, structure functions, distribution amplitudes, and transverse momentum distributions. The combined approach of light-front holography and superconformal algebra also provides insight into the origin of the QCD mass scale and color confinement. A key tool is the dAFF principle which shows how a mass scale can appear in the Hamiltonian and the equations of motion while retaining the conformal symmetry of the action. When one applies the dAFF procedure to chiral QCD, a mass scale $kappa$ appears which determines the hadron masses in the absence of the Higgs coupling. The result is an extended conformal symmetry which has a conformally invariant action even though an underlying mass scale appears in the Hamiltonian. Although conformal symmetry is strongly broken by the heavy quark mass, the supersymmetric mechanism, which transforms mesons to baryons (and baryons to tetraquarks), still holds and gives remarkable mass degeneracies across the spectrum of light, heavy-light and double-heavy hadrons.
Light-Front Quantization provides a physical, frame-independent formalism for hadron dynamics and structure. Observables such as structure functions, transverse momentum distributions, and distribution amplitudes are defined from the hadronic light-front wavefunctions. One obtains new insights into the hadronic spectrum, light-front wavefunctions, and the functional form of the QCD running coupling in the nonperturbative domain using light-front holography -- the duality between the front form and AdS$_5$, the space of isometries of the conformal group. In addition, superconformal algebra leads to remarkable supersymmetric relations between mesons and baryons of the same parity. The mass scale $kappa$ underlying confinement and hadron masses can be connected to the parameter $Lambda_{overline {MS}}$ in the QCD running coupling by matching the nonperturbative dynamics, as described by the effective conformal theory mapped to the light-front and its embedding in AdS space, to the perturbative QCD regime. The result is an effective coupling defined at all momenta. This matching of the high and low momentum transfer regimes determines a scale $Q_0$ which sets the interface between perturbative and nonperturbative hadron dynamics. The use of $Q_0$ to resolve the factorization scale uncertainty for structure functions and distribution amplitudes, in combination with the principle of maximal conformality (PMC) for setting the renormalization scales, can greatly improve the precision of perturbative QCD predictions for collider phenomenology. The absence of vacuum excitations of the front-form vacuum has important consequences for the cosmological constant. I also discuss evidence that the antishadowing of nuclear structure functions is flavor dependent, and why shadowing and antishadowing phenomena may be incompatible with sum rules for nuclear parton distribution functions.
We consider the phenomenon of the Andreev reflection of hadrons at the interface between hadronic and color superconducting phases, which are expected to appear in the neutron star interior. Here, hadrons are defined as a superposition of constituent quarks, each of which is Andreev-reflected. We study what kind of reflections are possible to come out of incident mesons and baryons in the hadronic phase, attached to different color superconducting phases. Then, some peculiar patterns of the reflections are obtained.