The black hole in the throat - thermodynamics of strongly coupled cascading gauge theories

Abstract

We numerically construct black hole solutions corresponding to the deconfined, chirally symmetric phase of strongly coupled cascading gauge theories at various temperatures. We compute the free energy as a function of the temperature, and we show that it becomes positive below some critical temperature, indicating the possibility of a first order phase transition at which the theory deconfines and restores the chiral symmetry.

45 pages, 13 figures, latex. v2: typo fixed