AdS/CFT and condensed matter systems
Giuseppe Policastro (LPT-ENS, Paris)
In this talk I will give an introduction to the idea of the holographic correspondence and some of its applications. In recent years holography has been shown to be a very useful tool to get theoretical insight into systems that can not be studied by more conventional methods, typically because there is no small expansion parameter; such systems include the QCD quark/gluon plasma, high-temperature superconductors, condensed matter systems in the vicinity of a quantum critical point, and strongly correlated electron systems (non-Fermi liquids). I will discuss how, while it is usually not possible to match any given realistic system with a corresponding holographic description, the method is useful for deriving results of a general nature. I will highlight the main successes of the method and some of the open questions.