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To reveal the Schwinger effect for quarks, i.e., pair creation process of quarks and antiquarks, we derive the vacuum decay rate at strong coupling using AdS/CFT correspondence. Magnetic fields, in addition to the electric field responsible for the pair creation, causes prominent effects on the rate, and is important also in experiments such as RHIC/LHC heavy ion collisions. In this paper, through the gravity dual we obtain the full Euler-Heisenberg Lagrangian of N=2 supersymmetric QCD and study the Schwinger mechanism with not only a constant electric field but also a constant magnetic field as external fields. We determine the quark mass and temperature dependence of the Lagrangian. In sharp contrast with the zero magnetic field case, we find that the imaginary part, and thus the vacuum decay rate, diverges in the massless zero-temperature limit. This may be related to a strong instability of the QCD vacuum in strong magnetic fields. The real part of the Lagrangian serves as a generating function for non-linear electro-magnetic responses, and is found such that the Cotton-Mouton effect vanishes. Interestingly, our results of the Schwinger / Cotton-Mouton effects coincide precisely with those of N=2 supersymmetric QED., Comment: 21 pages. v2:references added, footnotes added

We analyze vacuum instability of strongly coupled gauge theories in a constant electric field using AdS/CFT correspondence. The model is the N=2 1-flavor supersymmetric large N_c QCD in the strong 't Hooft coupling limit. We calculate the Euler-Heisenberg effective Lagrangian L(E), which encodes the nonlinear response and the quantum decay rate of the vacuum in a background electric field E, from the complex D-brane action in AdS/CFT. We find that the decay rate given by Im L(E) becomes nonzero above a critical electric field set by the confining force between quarks. A large-E expansion of Im L(E) is found to coincide with that of the Schwinger effects in QED, replacing its electron mass by the confining force. Then, the time-dependent response of the system in a strong electric field is solved non-perturbatively, and we observe a universal thermalization at a shortest timescale "Planckian thermalization time" t ~ 1/T ~ E^{-1/2}. Here, T is an effective temperature which quarks feel in the nonequilibrium state with nonzero electric current, calculated in AdS/CFT as a Hawking temperature. Stronger electric fields accelerate the thermalization, and for a realistic value of the electric field in RHIC experiment, we obtain t ~ 1 [fm/c], which is consistent with the believed value., Comment: 41 pages

We study transport phenomena of total angular momentum in holography, as a first step toward holographic understanding of spin transport phenomena. Spin current, which has both the local Lorentz index for spins and the space-time vector index for current, couples naturally to the bulk spin connection. Therefore the bulk spin connection becomes the source for the boundary spin current. This allows us to evaluate the spin current holographically, with a relation to the stress tensor and metric fluctuations in the bulk. We examine the spin transport coefficients and the thermal spin Hall conductivity in a simple holographic setup., Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures. v2: minor improvements, published version

We solve the equation of motion of boundary string field theory allowing generic boundary operators quadratic in $X$, and explore string theory non-perturbative vacua with massive state condensation. Using numerical analysis, a large number of new solutions are found. Their energies turn out to distribute densely in the range between the D-brane tension and the energy of the tachyon vacuum. We discuss an interpretation of these solutions as perturbative closed string states. From the cosmological point of view, the distribution of the energies can be regarded as the so-called landscape of string theory, as we have a vast number of non-perturbative string theory solutions including one with small vacuum energy., Comment: 22 pages, 12 figures, v2: minor change, reference added

We show that a chiral nonlinear sigma model coupled to degenerate neutrons exhibits a ferromagnetic phase at high density. The magnetization is due to the axial anomaly acting on the parallel layers of neutral pion domain walls spontaneously formed at high density. The emergent magnetic field would reach the QCD scale ~ 10^19 [G], which suggests that the quantum anomaly can be a microscopic origin of the magnetars (highly magnetized neutron stars)., Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures

We present a way to include impurities in AdS/CFT correspondence, in view of its application to condensed matter physics. Examples of these are the current impurity and spin impurity. We calculate electric conductivity and spin susceptibility of holographic superconductors, with doping of density/spin impurities., Comment: 16 pages, 9 figures

Robustness of the Luttinger theorem for fermionic liquids is examined in holography. The statement of the Luttinger theorem, the equality between the fermion charge density and the volume enclosed by the Fermi surface, can be mapped to a Gauss's law in the gravity dual, a la Sachdev. We show that various deformations in the gravity dual, such as inclusion of magnetic fields, a parity-violating theta-term, dilatonic deformations, and higher-derivative corrections, do not violate the holographic derivation of the Luttinger theorem, as long as the theory is in a confining phase. Therefore a robustness of the theorem is found for strongly correlated fermions coupled with strongly coupled sectors which admit gravity duals. On the other hand, in the deconfined phase, we also show that the deficit appearing in the Luttinger theorem is again universal. It measures a total deficit which measures the charge of the deconfined ("fractionalized") fermions, independent of the deformation parameters., Comment: 19 pages. v2: references and minor comments added

We provide, for non-experts, a brief overview of holographic QCD and a review of a recent proposal of matrix-description of multi-baryon systems in holographic QCD. Based on the matrix model, we derive the baryon interaction at short distances in multi-flavor holographic QCD. We show that there is a very universal repulsive core of inter-baryon forces for generic number of flavors. This is consistent with a recent lattice QCD analysis for N_f = 2, 3 where repulsive core looks universal. We also provide a comparison of our results with the lattice QCD and the operator product expansion (OPE) analysis., Comment: 31 pages, 13 figures

We show that quantum chiral anomaly of QCD in magnetic backgrounds induces a novel structure of electric charge inside baryons. To illustrate the anomaly effect, we employ the Skyrme model for baryons, with the anomaly-induced gauged Wess-Zumino term (\pi_0 + (multi-pion)) E_i B_i. Due to this term, the Skyrmions giving a local pion condensation ((\pi_0 + (multi-pion)) \neq 0) necessarily become a local charge source, in the background magnetic field B_i. We present detailed evaluation of the anomaly effects, and calculate the total induced charge, for various baryons in the magnetic field., Comment: 18 pages, 12 figures

In generic holographic QCD, we find that baryons are bound to form a nucleus, and that its radius obeys the empirically-known mass number (A) dependence r A^{1/3} for large A. Our result is robust, since we use only a generic property of D-brane actions in string theory. We also show that nucleons are bound completely in a finite volume. Furthermore, employing a concrete holographic model (derived by Hashimoto, Iizuka, and Yi, describing a multi-baryon system in the Sakai-Sugimoto model), the nuclear radius is evaluated as O(1) x A^{1/3} [fm], which is consistent with experiments., Comment: 4 pages; Ver.2: terminology on nuclear density saturation modified, a reference added

We show a novel charge structure of baryons in electromagnetic field due to the chiral anomaly. A key connection is to treat baryons as solitons of mesons. We use Skyrmions to calculate the charge distributions in a single nucleon and find an additional charge. We also perform calculations of charge distribution for classical multi-baryons with B=2, 3,...,8 and 17; they show amusing charge distributions., Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, numerical estimations updated

Using the AdS/CFT correspondence for strongly coupled gauge theories, we calculate thermalization of mesons caused by a time-dependent change of a baryon number chemical potential. On the gravity side, the thermalization corresponds to a horizon formation on the probe flavor brane in the AdS throat. Since heavy ion collisions are locally approximated by a sudden change of the baryon number chemical potential, we discuss implication of our results to RHIC and LHC experiments, to find a rough estimate of rather rapid thermalization time-scale t_{th} < 1 [fm/c]. We also discuss universality of our analysis against varying gauge theories., Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures. v2: minor clarifications, version to appear in PRD

We apply a generic framework of linear sigma models for revealing a mechanism of the mysterious phenomenon, the chiral magnetic effect, in quark-gluon plasma. An electric current arises along a background magnetic field, which is given rise to by Q-balls (non-topological solitons) of the linear sigma model with axial anomaly. We find additional alternating current due to quark mass terms. The hadronic Q-balls, baby boson stars, may be created in heavy-ion collisions., Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, revtex; v2: minor revision

We show that the Aharonov-Bohm effect in the nuclear matrix model derives the statistical nature of nucleons in holographic QCD. For N_c= odd (even), the nucleon is shown to be a fermion (boson)., Comment: 2 pages

We compute three-body nuclear forces at short distances by using the nuclear matrix model of holographic QCD proposed in our previous paper with P. Yi. We find that the three-body forces at short distances are repulsive for (a) aligned three neutrons with averaged spins, and (b) aligned proton-proton-neutron / proton-neutron-neutron. These indicate that in dense states of neutrons such as cores of neutron stars, or in Helium-3 / tritium nucleus, the repulsive forces are larger than the ones estimated from two-body forces only., Comment: 25 pages. v2: references added

We propose a new matrix model describing multi-baryon systems. We derive the action from open string theory on the wrapped baryon vertex D-branes embedded in the D4-D8 model of large N holographic QCD. The positions of k baryons are unified into k x k matrices, with spin/isospin of the baryons encoded in a set of k-vectors. Holographic baryons are known to be very small in the large 't Hooft coupling limit, and our model offers a better systematic approach to dynamics of such baryons at short distances. We compute energetics and spectra (k=1), and also short-distance nuclear force (k=2). In particular, we obtain a new size of the holographic baryon and find a precise form of the repulsive core of nucleons. This matrix model complements the instanton soliton picture of holographic baryons, whose small size turned out to be well below the natural length scale of the approximation involved there. Our results show that, nevertheless, the basic properties of holographic baryons obtained there are robust under stringy corrections within a few percents., Comment: 30 pages. v3: more comments added, published version

We provide a calculation of N-body (N>2) nucleon interactions at short distances in holographic QCD. In the Sakai-Sugimoto model of large N_c massless QCD, N baryons are described by N Yang-Mills instantons in 5 spacetime dimensions. We compute a classical short distance interaction hamiltonian for N 'tHooft instantons. This corresponds to N baryons sharing identical classical spins and isospins. We find that genuine N-body nuclear forces turn out to vanish for N>2, at the leading order. This suggests that classical N-body forces are always suppressed compared with 2-body forces., Comment: 4 pages

We provide a dual gravity description of a supersymmetric heavy nucleus, following the idea of our previous paper arXiv:0809.3141. The supersymmetric nucleus consists of a merginal bound state of $A$ baryons distributed over a ball in 3 dimensions. In the gauge/string duality, the baryon in N=4 super Yang-Mills (SYM) theory corresponds to a D5-brane wrapping S^5 of the AdS_5 x S^5 spacetime, so the nucleus corresponds to a collection of $A$ D5-branes. We take a large $A$ and a near horizon limits of a back-reacted geometry generated by the wrapped $A$ D5-branes, where we find a gap in the supergravity fluctuation spectrum. This spectrum is a gravity dual of giant resonances of heavy nuclei, in the supersymmetric toy example of QCD., Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures; v2:a refernce added

We introduce the strange quark mass to the Sakai-Sugimoto model of holographic QCD. We compute mass shifts in the spectra of three-flavor baryons at the leading order in perturbation in quark masses. Comparison with experimental data shows an agreement only qualitatively., Comment: 17 pages, v2: minor corrections, v3: published version

We demonstrate a holographic realization of color-flavor locking phase, using N=4 SU(Nc) SYM coupled to N=2 Nf fundamental hypermultiplets as an example. The gravity dual consists of Nc D3-branes and Nf D7-branes with world volume gauge field representing the baryon density. Treating a small number \tilde{N}c << Nc of D3-branes as Yang-Mills instantons on the D7-branes, we consider possible potential(s) on their moduli space or equivalently the Higgs branch. We show that a non-trivial potential can be generated by including the backreaction of the baryonic density on the D7-branes, this dynamically drives the instantons (= D3-branes) into dissolution. We interpret this as a color-flavor locking since the size of the instanton is the squark vev, and study the symmetry breaking patterns. Extending to finite temperature setup, we demonstrate that color-flavor locking persists, and the thermal effect provides additional structures in the phase diagram., Comment: 1+38 pages, 6 eps figures; typos corrected, acknowledgment and references added, discussions in sections 3.1 and 4.3 improved

We compute a shift of baryon mass spectra due to quark masses in perturbation, in Sakai-Sugimoto model of holographic QCD. We find the shift for the ground state nucleons to be \delta M = 4.1 m_{\pi}^2 [GeV^{-1}], which is consistent with the current lattice QCD result. We predict the same value of the shift for N(1535) and Delta, while a larger value 7.7 m_{\pi}^2 [GeV^{-1}] for Roper N(1440). We also present some evidences that the shifts of the vector meson masses are suppressed in the large 't Hooft coupling limit., Comment: 20 pages, v2: matching with lattice data updated for Delta, references added

We study a system of N D3-branes in which open string tachyons survive in the low energy alpha' -> 0 limit. We compute the height of the tachyon potential both in the weak and strong couplings by using N=4 super Yang-Mills and the dual AdS_5 descriptions respectively. We find an exact agreement between the two descriptions in the large N limit. This provides an example of gravitational duals of open string tachyon condensation., Comment: 4 pages, v2: references and footnotes added

We compute nuclear force in a holographic model of QCD on the basis of a D4-D8 brane configuration in type IIA string theory. Repulsive core of nucleons is quite important in nuclear physics, but its origin has not been well-understood in strongly-coupled QCD. We find that string theory via gauge/string duality deduces this repulsive core at short distance between nucleons. Since baryons in the model are realized as solitons given by Yang-Mills instanton configuration on flavor D8-branes, ADHM construction of two instantons probes well the nucleon interaction at short scale, which provides the nuclear force quantitatively. We obtain, as well as a tensor force, a central force which is strongly repulsive as suggested in experiments and lattice results. In particular, the nucleon-nucleon potential V(r) (as a function of the distance) scales as 1/r^2, which is peculiar to the holographic model. We compare our results with one-boson exchange model using the nucleon-nucleon-meson coupling obtained in our previous paper (arXiv:0806.3122)., Comment: PTPTeX, 56 pages, v2: typos corrected, appendix G added to compute a one-boson exchange potential from a standard field-theoretical point of viewv, v3: version published in Prog.Theor.Phys.