We review the construction of gravitational solutions holographically dual to N=1 quiver gauge theories with dynamical flavor multiplets. We focus on the D3-D7 construction and consider the finite temperature, finite quark chemical potential case whe
re there is a charged black hole in the dual solution. Discussed physical outputs of the model include its thermodynamics (with susceptibilities) and general hydrodynamic properties.
Holography provides a novel method to study the physics of Quark Gluon Plasmas, complementary to the ordinary field theory and lattice approaches. In this context, we analyze the informations that can be obtained for strongly coupled Plasmas containi
ng dynamical flavors, also in the presence of a finite baryon chemical potential. In particular, we discuss the jet quenching and the hydrodynamic transport coefficients.
First and second order transport coefficients are calculated for the strongly coupled N=4 SYM plasma coupled to massless fundamental matter in the Veneziano limit. The results, including among others the value of the bulk viscosity and some relaxatio
n times, are presented at next-to-leading order in the flavor contribution. The bulk viscosity is found to saturate Buchels bound. This result is also captured by an effective single-scalar five-dimensional holographic dual in the Chamblin-Reall class and it is suggested to hold, in the limit of small deformations, for generic plasmas with gravity duals, whenever the leading conformality breaking effects are driven by marginally (ir)relevant operators. This proposal is then extended to other relations for hydrodynamic coefficients, which are conjectured to be universal for every non-conformal plasma with a dual Chamblin-Reall-like description. Our analysis extends to any strongly coupled gauge theory describing the low energy dynamics of Nc>>1 D3-branes at the tip of a generic Calabi-Yau cone. The fundamental fields are added by means of 1<<Nf<<Nc homogeneously smeared D7-branes.
We study the static potential between external quark-antiquark pairs in a strongly coupled gauge theory with a large number of colors and massive dynamical flavors, using a dual string description. When the constituent mass of the dynamical quarks is
set below a certain critical value, we find a first order phase transition between a linear and a Coulomb-like regime. Above the critical mass the two phases are smoothly connected. We also study the dependence on the theory parameters of the quark-antiquark separation at which the static configuration decays into specific static-dynamical mesons.
