Deconfinement and Gluon Plasma Dynamics in Improved Holographic QCD

Abstract

The finite temperature physics of the pure glue sector in the improved holographic QCD model of arXiv:0707.1324 and arXiv:0707.1349 is addressed. The thermodynamics of 5D dilaton gravity duals to confining gauge theories is analyzed. We show that they exhibit a first order Hawking-Page type phase transition. In the explicit background of arXiv:0707.1349, we find T_c = 235 MeV. The temperature dependence of various thermodynamic quantities such as the pressure, entropy and speed of sound is calculated. The results show a good agreement with the corresponding lattice data.

LaTeX, 15 pages, 6 eps figures. Added comments and references; corrected misprint in eq. (3.5). A slightly shorter version of this work will appear in Physical Review Letters