AdS/CFT Correspondence and Strong Interactions

Abstract

The AdS/CFT correspondence is an exact duality between string theory in anti-de Sitter space and conformal field theories on its boundary. Inspired in this correspondence some relations between strings and non conformal field theories have been found. Exact dualities in the non conformal case are intricate but approximations can reproduce important physical results. A simple approximation consists in taking just a slice of the AdS space with a size that can be related to the QCD energy scale. Here we will discuss how this approach can be used to obtain the scaling of high energy QCD scattering amplitudes, glueball masses and Regge trajectories, and the potential energy for a quark anti-quark pair. This set up is modified to include finite temperature effects and obtain a deconfining phase trasition.