Matrix Model Thermodynamics

Abstract

Some recent work on the thermodynamic behavior of the matrix model of M-theory on a pp-wave background is reviewed. We examine a weak coupling limit where computations can be done explicitly. In the large N limit, we find a phase transition between two distinct phases which resembles a ``confinement-deconfinement'' transition in gauge theory and which we speculate must be related to a geometric transition in M-theory. We review arguments that the phase transition is also related to the Hagedorn transition of little string theory in a certain limit of the 5-brane geometry.