A holographic approach to phase transitions

Abstract

We provide a description of phase transitions at finite temperature in strongly coupled field theories using holography. For this purpose, we introduce a general class of gravity duals to superconducting theories that exhibit various types of phase transitions (first or second order with both mean and non-mean field behavior) as parameters in their Lagrangian are changed. Moreover the size and strength of the conductivity coherence peak can also be controlled. Our results suggest that certain parameters in the gravitational dual control the interactions responsible for binding the condensate and the magnitude of its fluctuations close to the transition.