Crossing a large-$N$ phase transition at finite volume

Autor: Bea, Yago, Dias, Oscar J. C., Giannakopoulos, Thanasis, Mateos, David, Sanchez-Garitaonandia, Mikel, Santos, Jorge E., Zilhao, Miguel
Rok vydání: 2020
Předmět:
Druh dokumentu: Working Paper
DOI: 10.1007/JHEP02(2021)061
Popis: The existence of phase-separated states is an essential feature of infinite-volume systems with a thermal, first-order phase transition. At energies between those at which the phase transition takes place, equilibrium homogeneous states are either metastable or suffer from a spinodal instability. In this range the stable states are inhomogeneous, phase-separated states. We use holography to investigate how this picture is modified at finite volume in a strongly coupled, four-dimensional gauge theory. We work in the planar limit, $N \to \infty$, which ensures that we remain in the thermodynamic limit. We uncover a rich set of inhomogeneous states dual to lumpy black branes on the gravity side, as well as first- and second-order phase transitions between them. We establish their local (in)stability properties and show that fully non-linear time evolution in the bulk takes unstable states to stable ones.
Comment: 69 pages, 31 figures
Databáze: arXiv