English

Chern-Simons diffusion rate in a holographic Yang-Mills theory

High Energy Physics - Theory 2015-06-11 v3 High Energy Physics - Phenomenology

Abstract

Using holography, we compute the Chern-Simons diffusion rate of 4d gauge theories constructed by wrapping D4-branes on a circle. In the model with antiperiodic boundary conditions for fermions, we find that it scales like T6T^6 in the high-temperature phase. With periodic fermions, this scaling persists at low temperatures. The scaling is reminiscent of 6d hydrodynamic behavior even at temperatures small compared to compactification scales of the M5-branes from which the D4-branes descend. We offer a holographic explanation of this behavior by adding a new entry to the known map between D4 and M5 hydrodynamics, and suggest a field theory explanation based on "deconstruction" or "fractionization".

Cite

@article{arxiv.1209.2532,
  title  = {Chern-Simons diffusion rate in a holographic Yang-Mills theory},
  author = {Ben Craps and Carlos Hoyos and Piotr Surowka and Pieter Taels},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1209.2532},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

13 pages, misstatement in published version about low temperature phase removed, main results unaffected

R2 v1 2026-06-21T22:03:39.873Z