We revisit a one-parameter family of three-dimensional gauge theories with known supergravity duals. We show that three infrared behaviors are possible. For generic values of the parameter, the theories exhibit a mass gap but no confinement, meaning no linear quark-antiquark potential; for one limiting value of the parameter the theory flows to an infrared fixed point; and for another limiting value it exhibits both a mass gap and confinement. Theories close to these limiting values exhibit quasi-conformal and quasi-confining dynamics, respectively. Eleven-dimensional supergravity provides a simple, geometric explanation of these features.
We use top-down holography to study the thermodynamics of a one-parameter family of three-dimensional, strongly coupled Yang-Mills-Chern-Simons theories with Mtheory duals. For generic values of the parameter, the theories exhibit a mass gap but no confinement, meaning no linear quark-antiquark potential. For two specific values of the parameter they flow to an infrared fixed point or to a confining vacuum, respectively. As in the Klebanov-Strassler solution, on the gravity side the mass gap is generated by the smooth collapse to zero size of a cycle in the internal geometry. We uncover a rich phase diagram with thermal phase transitions of first and second order, a triple point and a critical point.
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