HET Journal club: David McGady

Speaker: David McGady

Title: Signatures of phase transitions (or, at least some of them)

Abstract: In this talk, I will review several ways that phase transitions appear in tractable approximations to statistical systems. In particular, I will focus on Lee-Yang zeros [1,2] and Hagedorn poles [3]. In [2], Maloney-Witten discuss phase transitions in pure gravity in AdS3 by Lee-Yang zero condensation in a certain thermodynamic limit. Similarly, in [3] Aharony et al discuss the phase transitions in four-dimensional gauge theories at weak coupling by showing a crossover at finite-N turns into a Hagedorn pole in the large-N limit. These phase transitions in [2] and [3] are thought to be similar. I am interested in commonalities between Hagedorn poles/growth of states and condensation of Lee-Yang zeros.

Selected references:
[1] Yang-Lee's "Statistical Theory of Equations of State and Phase Transitions. I. Theory of Condensation" (Phys. Rev. 1952, vol 87, no 3), specifically sections I--IV
[2] Maloney-Witten's "Quantum Gravity Partition Functions in Three Dimensions" (https://arxiv.org/abs/0712.0155v1), specifically section 6
[3] Aharony-Marsano-Minwalla-Papadodimas-Van Raamsdonk's "The Hagedorn/Deconfinement Phase Transition in Weakly Coupled Large N Gauge Theories" (https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0310285), specifically sections 3.1 and 3.2