Disordered horizons: holography of randomly disordered fixed points.

Area of Science:

• Theoretical Physics
• Quantum Field Theory
• String Theory and Gravity

Background:

• Conformal field theories (CFTs) are fundamental in understanding critical phenomena and have dual descriptions in classical gravity.
• Introducing disorder is a common method to probe the robustness and properties of physical systems, particularly at critical points.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the effects of marginally relevant random disorder on CFTs with classical gravity duals.
• To identify and characterize the infrared (IR) fixed points generated by this disorder.
• To determine the dynamical critical exponent (z) of these disordered fixed points.

Main Methods:

• Deformation of CFTs by marginally relevant random disorder.
• Analytical calculations using resummed perturbation theory.
• Numerical simulations of the disorder effects.

Main Results:

• The disorder drives the system towards IR fixed points, even with a finite amount of disorder.
• These randomly disordered fixed points exhibit a dynamical critical exponent z > 1.
• The exponent z increases with the magnitude of the disorder, suggesting a potential divergence at infinite disorder.

Conclusions:

• Random disorder can fundamentally alter the IR behavior of CFTs with gravity duals, leading to new universality classes.
• The dynamical critical exponent is a key characteristic of these disordered phases and is tunable by disorder strength.
• The findings provide insights into the interplay between disorder, criticality, and emergent gravity.