Paper detail

Critical phenomena in N=2* plasma

We use gauge theory/string theory correspondence to study finite temperature critical behaviour of mass deformed N=4 SU(N) supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory at strong coupling, also known as N=2* gauge theory. For certain range of the mass parameters, N=2* plasma undergoes a second-order phase transition. We compute all the static critical exponents of the model and demonstrate that the transition is of the mean-field theory type. We show that the dynamical critical exponent of the model is z=0, with multiple hydrodynamic relaxation rates at criticality. We point out that the dynamical critical phenomena in N=2* plasma is outside the dynamical universality classes established by Hohenberg and Halperin.