English

Matrix Model Thermodynamics

High Energy Physics - Theory 2017-08-23 v1

Abstract

Some recent work on the thermodynamic behavior of the matrix model of M-theory on a pp-wave background is reviewed. We examine a weak coupling limit where computations can be done explicitly. In the large N limit, we find a phase transition between two distinct phases which resembles a ``confinement-deconfinement'' transition in gauge theory and which we speculate must be related to a geometric transition in M-theory. We review arguments that the phase transition is also related to the Hagedorn transition of little string theory in a certain limit of the 5-brane geometry.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.hep-th/0405107,
  title  = {Matrix Model Thermodynamics},
  author = {Gordon W. Semenoff},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:hep-th/0405107},
  year   = {2017}
}

Comments

Presented at ``Circumnavigating Theoretical Physics'', in Memory of Ian Kogan, Oxford, U.K., January 2004. Plenary lecture at ``Quantum Theory and Symmetries'', Cincinnati, Ohio, October 2003