We propose a five-dimensional framework for modeling low-energy properties of QCD. In the simplest three parameter model we compute masses, decay rates and couplings of the lightest mesons. The model fits experimental data to within 10%. The framework is a holographic version of the QCD sum rules, motivated by the anti-de Sitter/conformal field theory correspondence. The model naturally incorporates properties of QCD dictated by chiral symmetry, which we demonstrate by deriving the Gell-Mann-Oakes-Renner relationship for the pion mass.

In a theory with linear confinement, such as QCD, the masses squared m 2 n,S of mesons with high spin S or high radial excitation number n are expected, from semiclassical arguments, to grow linearly with S and n. We show that this behavior can be reproduced within a putative 5-dimensional theory holographically dual to QCD (AdS/QCD). With the assumption that such a dual theory exists and describes highly excited mesons as well, we show that asymptotically linear m 2 spectrum translates into a strong constraint on the infrared behavior of that theory. In the simplest model which obeys such a constraint we find m 2 n,S ∼ (n + S).

We consider second-order viscous hydrodynamics in conformal field theories at finite temperature. We show that conformal invariance imposes powerful constraints on the form of the second-order corrections. By matching to the AdS/CFT calculations of correlators, and to recent results for Bjorken flow obtained by Heller and Janik, we find three (out of five) second-order transport coefficients in the strongly coupled N = 4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory. We also discuss how these new coefficents can arise within the kinetic theory of weakly coupled conformal plasmas. We point out that the Müller-Israel-Stewart theory, often used in numerical simulations, does not contain all allowed second-order terms and, frequently, terms required by conformal invariance.

Several approaches to QCD with two massless quarks at finite temperature T and baryon chemical potential mu suggest the existence of a tricritical point on the boundary of the phase with spontaneously broken chiral symmetry. In QCD with massive quarks there is then a critical point at the end of a first order transition line. We discuss possible experimental signatures of this point, which provide information about its location and properties. We propose a combination of event-by-event observables, including suppressed fluctuations in T and mu and, simultaneously, enhanced fluctuations in the multiplicity of soft pions.Comment: 5 pages (published version