Real-Time Dynamics of Plasma Balls from Holography

Area of Science:

• High-energy physics
• String theory
• Holography

Background:

• Plasma balls are droplets of deconfined plasma within a vacuum.
• Understanding their real-time evolution is crucial for plasma physics.
• Holographic duality provides a framework to study strongly coupled systems.

Purpose of the Study:

• To perform the first holographic simulation of plasma ball real-time evolution.
• To investigate the dynamics of localized black holes in an anti-de Sitter soliton background.
• To connect black hole physics to the dual gauge theory of plasma balls.

Main Methods:

• Holographic simulation using localized, finite-energy black holes in a five-dimensional anti-de Sitter soliton background.
• Employing horizonless initial data from a massless scalar field.
• Analyzing gravitational and scalar radiation during scalar field collapse.

Main Results:

• Scalar field collapse creates an excited black hole and produces radiation, corresponding to particle production in the dual gauge theory.
• The black hole evolves towards an equilibrium plasma ball state on a surprisingly long timescale.
• This extended timescale is attributed to confinement effects and periodic disturbances within the anti-de Sitter soliton.

Conclusions:

• The study successfully simulates plasma ball evolution using holographic methods.
• It demonstrates a connection between black hole dynamics and particle production in the dual gauge theory.
• The findings highlight the role of confinement in the long-term evolution of plasma ball analogues.