# Condensed matter application of AdS/CFT

I'm going to be teaching a course on gauge/gravity duality (aka AdS/CFT) in the winter. The focus will be on applications in particle theory including $N=4$ SYM, the viscosity/entropy bound, and aspects of large $N$ QCD. I would like to include at least one application to condensed matter physics. There has been a lot of work on this over the last couple of years but I haven't followed it very closely. Can anybody suggest a nice application that is simple enough to work through in a few lectures for students who know QFT and GR and will have had some exposure to AdS/CFT?

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Nice question :-) (and sounds like a fun course, too) –  David Z Dec 17 '10 at 21:21
Jeff, I posed the following question before you joined Physics Stack Exchange. I'd be very interested if you had something to say: physics.stackexchange.com/questions/756/mathematics-of-ads-cft –  Eric Zaslow Dec 17 '10 at 21:42
+1 and looking forward to the answers. I'd especially like to learn something about quark-gluon plasma. –  Marek Dec 17 '10 at 22:53
Eric, I think Matt Reece gave you a good answer. If I come up with a better one as I learn more I'll let you know. –  pho Dec 18 '10 at 15:25
Thanks, Jeff. It seems that math -- only now beginning to emerge from the TFT/mirror-symmetry question -- is not ready to take on AdS/CFT! –  Eric Zaslow Dec 19 '10 at 16:13
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I would suggest looking at Sachdev's "Condensed Matter and AdS/CFT" and McGreevy's "Holographic duality with a view toward many-body physics" for an overall perspective.

When it comes to condensed matter, AdS/CFT is generally used to calculate transport coefficients for systems near their critical point such as in the antiferromagnetic (Neel state) - dimer gas crossover or for high-Tc superconductivity to understand the transition between psuedogap and superconducting phases. Again for a more precise statement of the various cases I would look at these and other references.

Their is also a nice post on Lubos Motl's blog regarding Sachdev's work.

                             Cheers,

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