Date Thesis Awarded

5-2016

Access Type

Honors Thesis -- Access Restricted On-Campus Only

Degree Name

Bachelors of Science (BS)

Department

Physics

Advisor

Joshua Erlich

Committee Members

Henry Krakauer

Daniel Vasiliu

Abstract

The Anti-de Sitter space/Conformal Field Theory (AdS/CFT) correspondence has motivated holographic models of physical phenomena at both zero and finite temperature. Zero-temperature results rely on one form of the correspondence, in which classical field theory calculations in a (usually modified) Anti-de Sitter space are said to be dual to calculations made for some quantum field theory at zero temperature. Finite-temperature calculations work similarly, except that the Anti-de Sitter space is taken to have a black hole horizon, and the correspondence is stated differently. In this work, we ask whether these two correspondences are in fact two distinct statements of some more general duality. We find that in certain limits calculations made at finite temperature using the zero-temperature statement of the correspondence match well-known finite-temperature results. Numerical results, while not conclusive, also do not rule out the possibility of a correspondence. This suggests that the two dualities may in fact be the same.

Recommended Citation

Olsen, Jackson Cross, "Black Holes and Finite-Temperature Field Theory in AdS/CFT" (2016). Undergraduate Honors Theses. William & Mary. Paper 929.
https://scholarworks.wm.edu/honorstheses/929