TY - JOUR
T1 - Wilson loops, confinement, and phase transitions in large N gauge theories from supergravity
AU - Brandhuber, Andreas
AU - Itzhaki, Nissan
AU - Sonnenschein, Jacob
AU - Yankielowicz, Shimon
PY - 1998
Y1 - 1998
N2 - We use the recently proposed supergravity approach to large N gauge theories to calculate ordinary and spatial Wilson loops of gauge theories in various dimensions. In this framework we observe an area law for spatial Wilson loops in four and five dimensional supersymmetric Yang-Mills at finite temperature. This can be interpreted as the area law of ordinary Wilson loops in three and four dimensional non-supersymmetric gauge theories at zero temperature which indicates confinement in these theories. Furthermore, we show that super Yang Mills theories with 16 supersymmetries at finite temperature do not admit phase transitions between the weakly coupled super Yang Mills and supergravity regimes. This result is derived by analyzing the entropy and specific heat of those systems as well as by computing ordinary Wilson loops at finite temperature. The calculation of the entropy was carried out in all different regimes and indicates that there is no first order phase transition in these systems. For the same theories at zero temperature we also compute the dependence of the quark anti-quark potential on the separating distance.
AB - We use the recently proposed supergravity approach to large N gauge theories to calculate ordinary and spatial Wilson loops of gauge theories in various dimensions. In this framework we observe an area law for spatial Wilson loops in four and five dimensional supersymmetric Yang-Mills at finite temperature. This can be interpreted as the area law of ordinary Wilson loops in three and four dimensional non-supersymmetric gauge theories at zero temperature which indicates confinement in these theories. Furthermore, we show that super Yang Mills theories with 16 supersymmetries at finite temperature do not admit phase transitions between the weakly coupled super Yang Mills and supergravity regimes. This result is derived by analyzing the entropy and specific heat of those systems as well as by computing ordinary Wilson loops at finite temperature. The calculation of the entropy was carried out in all different regimes and indicates that there is no first order phase transition in these systems. For the same theories at zero temperature we also compute the dependence of the quark anti-quark potential on the separating distance.
KW - Black holes in string theory
KW - Brane dynamics in gauge theories
KW - Confinement
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=33645898657&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1088/1126-6708/1998/06/001
DO - 10.1088/1126-6708/1998/06/001
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AN - SCOPUS:33645898657
SN - 1029-8479
VL - 2
SP - XI-19
JO - Journal of High Energy Physics
JF - Journal of High Energy Physics
IS - 6
ER -