Holographic Spectral Functions at Finite Baryon Density

Abstract

Using the AdS/CFT correspondence, we compute the spectral functions of thermal super Yang Mills at large N_c coupled to a small number of flavours of fundamental matter, N_f<<N_c, in the presence of a nonzero baryon density. The holographic dual of such a theory involves the addition of probe D7-branes with a background worldvolume gauge field switched on, embedded in the geometry of a stack of black D3-branes. We perform the analysis in the vector and scalar channels which become coupled for nonzero values of the spatial momentum and baryon density. In addition, we obtain the effect of the presence of net baryon charge on the photon production. We also extract the conductivity and find perfect agreement with the results derived by Karch and O'Bannon in a macroscopic setup.