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We study the behavior of quasinormal modes in a top-down holographic dual corresponding to a strongly coupled $\mathcal{N} = 4$ super Yang-Mills plasma charged under a $U(1)$ subgroup of the global $SU(4)$ R-symmetry. In particular, we analyze the spectra of quasinormal modes in the external scalar and vector diffusion channels near the critical point and obtain the behavior of the characteristic equilibration times of the plasma as the system evolves towards the critical point of its phase diagram. Except close to the critical point, we observe that by increasing the chemical potential one generally increases the damping rate of the quasinormal modes, which leads to a reduction of the characteristic equilibration times in the dual strongly coupled plasma. However, as one approaches the critical point the typical equilibration time (as estimated from the lowest non-hydrodynamic quasinormal mode frequency) increases, although remaining finite, while its derivative with respect to the chemical potential diverges with exponent -1/2. We also find a purely imaginary non-hydrodynamical mode in the vector diffusion channel at nonzero chemical potential which dictates the equilibration time in this channel near the critical point., Comment: 31 pages, 15 figures, version accepted for publication in JHEP

We investigate the temperature and magnetic field dependence of the Polyakov loop and heavy quark entropy in a bottom-up Einstein-Maxwell-dilaton (EMD) holographic model for the strongly coupled quark-gluon plasma (QGP) that quantitatively matches lattice data for the $(2+1)$-flavor QCD equation of state at finite magnetic field and physical quark masses. We compare the holographic EMD model results for the Polyakov loop at zero and nonzero magnetic fields and the heavy quark entropy at vanishing magnetic field with the latest lattice data available for these observables and find good agreement for temperatures $T\gtrsim 150$ MeV and magnetic fields $eB\lesssim 1$ GeV$^2$. Predictions for the behavior of the heavy quark entropy at nonzero magnetic fields are made that could be readily tested on the lattice., Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, version accepted for publication in Physical Review D

In this paper we obtain holographic formulas for the transport coefficients $\kappa$ and $\tau_\pi$ present in the second-order derivative expansion of relativistic hydrodynamics in curved spacetime associated with a non-conformal strongly coupled plasma described holographically by an Einstein+Scalar action in the bulk. We compute these coefficients as functions of the temperature in a bottom-up non-conformal model that is tuned to reproduce lattice QCD thermodynamics at zero baryon chemical potential. We directly compute, besides the speed of sound, 6 other transport coefficients that appear at second-order in the derivative expansion. We also give an estimate for the temperature dependence of 11 other transport coefficients taking into account the simplest contribution from non-conformal effects that appear near the QCD crossover phase transition. Using these results, we construct an Israel-Stewart-like theory in flat spacetime containing 13 of these 17 transport coefficients that should be suitable for phenomenological applications in the context of numerical hydrodynamic simulations of the strongly-coupled, non-conformal quark-gluon plasma. Using several different approximations, we give parametrizations for the temperature dependence of all the second-order transport coefficients that appear in this theory in a format that can be easily implemented in existing numerical hydrodynamic codes., Comment: 47 pages, 13 figures, three appendices; references added; to appear in JHEP

The imaginary part of the heavy quark-antiquark potential experienced by moving heavy quarkonia in strongly coupled plasmas dual to theories of gravity is computed by considering thermal worldsheet fluctuations of the holographic Nambu-Goto string. General results for a wide class of gravity duals are presented and an explicit formula for $\mathrm{Im} \, V_{Q\bar{Q}}$ is found in the case where the axis of the moving $\bar{Q}Q$ pair has an arbitrary orientation with respect to its velocity in the plasma. These results are applied to the study of heavy quarkonia propagating through a strongly coupled $\mathcal{N} = 4$ SYM plasma. Our results indicate that the onset of $\mathrm{Im} \, V_{Q\bar{Q}}$ decreases with increasing rapidity (though our analysis is limited to slowly moving quarkonia) and that, in general, a $Q\bar{Q}$ pair is more strongly bound if its axis is aligned with its direction of motion through the strongly coupled plasma., Comment: 30 pages, 13 figures, references added. Revised discussion

The frequency dependent conductivity $\sigma(\omega)$ of the strongly coupled Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP) is estimated using a bottom up holographic model that can adequately describe recent lattice data for QCD thermodynamics at zero chemical potential. Different choices for the coupling between the bulk gauge field and the other bulk fields that define the background (the metric and a scalar field) are used in order to fit the lattice data for the electric charge susceptibility $\chi_2^Q/T^2$. The ratio $\sigma_{DC}/T$ is found to vary near the deconfinement transition in a way that is similar to recent lattice results. This model is used to compute the charge diffusion coefficient $D$ of the strongly coupled plasma. We find that the dimensionless combination $DT$ has the same type of temperature dependence displayed by $\sigma_{DC}/T$ and, thus, charge diffusion is suppressed at low temperatures. The frequency dependent conductivity $\sigma(\omega)$ reveals some nontrivial structure for values of the temperature near the phase transition. None of these structures appear in the associated Euclidean correlator, which we also compute. Our results suggest that the conformal invariance violation near the QCD deconfinement phase transition may be seen in the Euclidean correlator through a downward shift of its value at the minimum, which gives a rough estimate of the temperature dependence of the DC conductivity in the plasma., Comment: 19 pages, 7 figures

In this paper we extend the well known QCD sum rules used in the calculation of the mass of heavy mesons to estimate the modification of the charged B meson mass, m_B, in the presence of an external Abelian magnetic field, eB. Two simplifying limits were considered: the weak field limit in which the external field satisfies eB << m^2 (with m being any of the masses involved) and the strong field limit in which the field strength is small in comparison to the bottom quark mass (or the B meson mass) squared but it is large compared to the mass of the light quarks, i.e., m^2_{u,d} << eB << m^2_{b,B}. We found that m_B decreases with the magnetic field in the both of these limits., Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures

The gauge/gravity duality is used to investigate the imaginary part of the heavy quark potential (defined via the rectangular Wilson loop) in strongly coupled plasmas. This quantity can be used to estimate the width of heavy quarkonia in a plasma at strong coupling. In this paper the thermal worldsheet fluctuation method, proposed in [J.Noronha and A.Dumitru, Phys.\ Rev.\ Lett.\ {\bf 103}, 152304 (2009)], is revisited and general conditions for the existence of an imaginary part for the heavy quark potential computed within classical gravity models are obtained. We prove a general result that establishes the connection between this imaginary part of the potential determined holographically and the area law displayed by the Wilson loop in the vacuum of confining gauge theories. We also determine the imaginary part of the heavy quark potential in a strongly coupled plasma dual to Gauss-Bonnet gravity. This provides an estimate of how the thermal width of heavy quarkonia changes with the shear viscosity to entropy density ratio, $\eta/s$, at strong coupling., Comment: 45 pages, 20 figures; new references and appendix added

Using the QCD sum rules we test if the charmonium-like structure Y(4274), observed in the $J/\psi\phi$ invariant mass spectrum, can be described with a $D_s\bar{D}_{s0}(2317)+h.c.$ molecular current with $J^{PC}=0^{-+}$. We consider the contributions of condensates up to dimension ten and we work at leading order in $\alpha_s$. We keep terms which are linear in the strange quark mass $m_s$. The mass obtained for such state is $m_{D_s{D}_{s0}}=(4.80\pm 0.55)$ GeV. We also consider a molecular $0^{-+}$ $D\bar{D}_{0}(2400)+h.c.$ current and we obtain $m_{D{D}_0}=(4.61\pm 0.71)$ GeV. Our study shows that the newly observed Y(4274) in the $J/\psi\phi$ invariant mass spectra can be, considering the uncertainties, described using a molecular charmonium current., Comment: version to appear in Phys. Lett. B