Ads/CFT correspondence in condensed matter

Abstract

The goal of these notes is to introduce, in a very elementary way, the idea of the anti de-Sitter/Conformal Field Theory (AdS/CFT) correspondence to condensed matter physicists. This theory relates a gravity theory in a (d+1)- dimensional anti-de Sitter spacetime to a strongly-coupled d- dimensional quantum field theory living on its boundary. The AdS/CFT correspondence can be used to study finite temperature real time processes, such as response functions and dynamics far from equilibrium in quantum critical points in condensed matter systems. Computation of these quantities is reduced to solving classical gravitational equations in one higher dimension than the original theory.