Related papers: Using string theory to study the quark-gluon plasm…

Two strands of observational gravitation, one the search for astrophysical evidence of primordial black holes and the other the search for gravitational waves, may combine to provide strong evidence in favour of cosmological models based on…

The work on black holes immersed in external fields is reviewed in both test-field approximation and within exact solutions. In particular we pay attention to the effect of the expulsion of the flux of external fields across charged and…

A very brief review is given of the current state of research in quantum gravity. Over the past fifteen years, two approaches have emerged as the most promising paths to a quantum theory of gravity: string theory and quantum geometry. I…

We give a brief overview of the basic philosophy behind applying gauge/gravity duality to problems in heavy ion physics. Recent progress regarding viscosities, anomalous hydrodynamics, energy loss, as well as thermalization will be…

I describe how lattice computations are being used to extract experimentally relevant features of the quark gluon plasma. I deal specifically with relaxation times, photon emissivity, strangeness yields, event by event fluctuations of…

The drag of a heavy quark and the jet quenching parameter are studied in the strongly coupled N=2* plasma using the AdS/CFT correspondence. Both increase in units of the spatial string tension as the theory departs from conformal…

In this paper we review recent progress towards understanding the nature of quarkonia in the quark-gluon plasma. We review the theory necessary to understand the melting of bound states due to color-screening, including lattice results for…

A full quantum description of global vortex strings is presented in the framework of a pure Higgs system with a broken global U(1) symmetry in 3+1D. An explicit expression for the string creation operator is obtained, both in terms of the…

I present a brief review on some of the recent developments in topological quantum field theory. These include topological string theory, topological Yang-Mills theory and Chern-Simons gauge theory. It is emphasized how the application of…

Intense electromagnetic fields are created in the quark-gluon plasma by the external ultra-relativistic valence charges. The time-evolution and the strength of this field are strongly affected by the electrical conductivity of the plasma.…

We calculate the drag force experienced by an infinitely massive quark propagating at constant velocity through an anisotropic, strongly coupled N=4 plasma by means of its gravity dual. We find that the gluon cloud trailing behind the quark…

I begin these three lectures by describing some of the useful things that we have learned about large-N gauge theories using lattice simulations. For example that the theory is confining in that limit, that for many quantities SU(3) is…

In 4D general relativity, the angular momentum of a black hole is limited by the Kerr bound. We suggest that in string theory, this bound can be breached and compact black-hole-like objects can spin faster. Near such "superspinars," the…

The discovery of collective effects in small collision systems, have spurred a renewed interest in hadronization models, also as a source for collective effects all the way to large collision systems, where they are usually ascribed to the…

Analysis of string interactions indicates a weakening of gravity at the string length scale, thus avoiding black holes and their singularities.

The Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP) is the QCD phase of matter expected to be formed at small proper-times in the collision of heavy-ions at high energy. Experimental observations seem to favor a strongly coupled QCD plasma with the hydrodynamic…

We review the various methods which have been employed recently to describe the thermodynamics of the high temperature quark-gluon plasma using weak coupling techniques, and we compare their results with those of most recent lattice gauge…

We compute the drag force exerted on a quark and a di-quark systems in a background dual to large-N QCD at finite temperature. We find that appears a drag force in the former setup with flow of energy proportional to the mass of the quark…

In this note we present a brief overview of connections between Chern-Simons theory and topological strings. A prominent role in this link has been played by large N dualities and holography. We demystify this by explaining why the Kahler…

We review the history and success of applying relativistic hydrodynamics to high-energy heavy-ion collisions. We emphasize the important role hydrodynamics has played in the discovery of the quark-gluon plasma and its quantitative…