Remote Nordic HET seminar: Andy O'Bannon

Speaker: Andy O'Bannon

Title: Holographic Entanglement and Fluctuations on the Coulomb Branch

Abstract: (3+1)-dimensional N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills (SYM) theory has a Coulomb branch of vacua in which the gauge group is genercially broken to a subgroup. I will consider a point on the Coulomb branch where SU(N) breaks to SU(N-1) x U(1). In the 't Hooft large N limit, and at large 't Hooft coupling, this vacuum is described holographically by a probe D3-brane in the type IIB background AdS5 x S5. I will re-visit two classes of well-known solutions for this probe D3-brane whose dual field theory interpretations have been long-standing mysteries. By calculating the D3-branes' spectrum of worldvolume fluctuations and its contribution to holographic entanglement entropy, I will argue that the first class of solutions are dual to screened Wilson lines, while the second class of solutions are dual to spherical solitons with properties qualitatively and quantitatively similar to extremal black holes--though with some crucial differences.