We consider a general framework to study holographically the dynamics of fundamental quarks in a confining gauge theory. Flavors are introduced by placing a set of (coincident) branes and antibranes on a background dual to a confining color theory. The spectrum contains an open string tachyon and its condensation describes the U(N_f)_L x U(N_f)_R -> U(N_f)_V symmetry breaking. By studying worldvolume gauge transformations of the flavor brane action, we obtain the QCD global anomalies and an IR condition that allows to fix the quark condensate in terms of the quark mass. We find the expected N_f^2 Goldstone bosons (for m_q=0), the Gell-Mann-Oakes-Renner relation (for m_q small) and the \eta' mass. Remarkably, the linear confinement behavior for the masses of highly excited spin-1 mesons, m_n^2 ~ n is naturally reproduced.Comment: 30 pages + 5 appendices, 2 figure

We study the String dual to N = 1 SQCD deformed by a quartic superpotential in the quark superfields. We present a unified view of the previous results in the literature and find new exact solutions and new asymptotic solutions. Then we study the Physics encoded in these backgrounds, giving among other things a resolution to an old puzzle related to the beta function and a sufficient criteria for screening. We also extend our results to the SO(N c) case where we present a candidate for the Wilson loop in the spinorial representation. Various aspects of this line of research are critically analyzed. 1

We find non-critical string backgrounds in five and eight dimensions, holographically related to four-dimensional conformal field theories with N = 0 and N = 1 supersymmetries. In the five-dimensional case we find an AdS 5 background metric for a string model related to non-supersymmetric, conformal QCD with large number of colors and flavors and discuss the conjectured existence of a conformal window from the point of view of our solution. In the eight-dimensional string theory, we build a family of solutions of the form AdS 5 ×S 3 withS 3 a squashed three-sphere. For a special value of the ratio N f /N c , the background can be interpreted as the supersymmetric near-horizon limit of a system of color and flavor branes on R 1,3 times a known four-dimensional generalization of the cigar. The N = 1 dual theory with fundamental matter should have an IR fixed point only for a fixed ratio N f /N c . General features of the string/gauge theory correspondence for theories with fundamental flavors are also addressed.

We study the holographic dual model of quenched flavors immersed in a quark-gluon plasma with massless dynamical quarks in the Veneziano limit. This is modeled by embedding a probe D7 brane in a background where the backreaction of massless D7 branes has been taken into account. The background, and hence the effects, are perturbative in the Veneziano parameter N f /N c , therefore giving small shifts of all magnitudes like the constituent mass, the quark condensate, and several transport coefficients. We provide qualitative results for the effect of flavor degrees of freedom on the probes. For example, the meson melting temperature is enhanced, while the screening length is diminished. The drag force is also enhanced.

A simple holographic model is presented and analyzed that describes chiral symmetry breaking and the physics of the meson sector in QCD. This is a bottom-up model that incorporates string theory ingredients like tachyon condensation which is expected to be the main manifestation of chiral symmetry breaking in the holographic context. As a model for glue the Kuperstein-Sonnenschein background is used. The structure of the flavor vacuum is analyzed in the quenched approximation. Chiral symmetry breaking is shown at zero temperature. Above the deconfinement transition chiral symmetry is restored. A complete holographic renormalization is performed and the chiral condensate is calculated for different quark masses both at zero and non-zero temperatures. The 0^{++},0^{-+},1^{++},1^{--} meson trajectories are analyzed and their masses and decay constants are computed. The asymptotic trajectories are linear. The model has one phenomenological parameter beyond those of QCD that affects the 1^{++},0^{-+} sectors. Fitting this parameter we obtain very good agreement with data. The model improves in several ways the popular hard-wall and soft wall bottom-up models.Comment: 55 pages, 17 figures, 8 appendice

We study two related problems in the context of a supergravity dual to N = 1 SYM. One of the problems is finding kappa symmetric D5-brane probes in this particular background. The other is the use of these probes to add flavors to the gauge theory. We find a rich and mathematically appealing structure of the supersymmetric embeddings of a D5-brane probe in this background. Besides, we compute the mass spectrum of the low energy excitations of N = 1 SQCD (mesons) and match our results with some field theory aspects known from the study of supersymmetric gauge theories with a small number of flavors.

We analyze the time evolution of a system of two coexisting languages (Castillian Spanish and Galician, both spoken in northwest Spain) in the framework of a model given by Abrams andStrogatz [Nature 424, 900 (2003)]. It is shown that, contrary to the model's initial prediction, a stable bilingual situation is possible if the languages in competition are similar enough. Similarity is described with a simple parameter, whose value can be estimated from fits of the data.

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