https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-009-0939-9
Regular Article - Theoretical Physics
Unraveling AdS/CFT
What string theory is telling us about the physics at RHIC
University of Colorado, Boulder, USA
* e-mail: christopher.rosen@colorado.edu
Received:
30
September
2008
Published online:
4
March
2009
In this review, I survey the conjectured correspondence between a string theory in ten dimensions and certain supersymmetric gauge theories in four. This duality has recently garnered considerable attention from scientists studying the hot matter produced in heavy-ion collisions. An important and immediate question is to what extent one can hope to describe the dynamics of the quark–gluon plasma in a supersymmetric conformal field theory. Here I explain recent applications of the AdS/CFT correspondence to the strongly interacting matter produced at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. Progress in characterizing the medium with these techniques will be discussed, as well as limitations inherent to the method.
© Springer-Verlag , 2009
