• Atomic Physics
• Biophysics Theory and Experiment
• Condensed Matter Experiment
• Condensed Matter Theory
• Cosmology Experiment
• Cosmology Theory
• High Energy Experiment
• High Energy Theory Faculty
  • Curtis Callan
  • Steven Gubser
  • Christopher Herzog
  • Igor Klebanov
  • Chiara R. Nappi
  • Alexander Polyakov
  • Paul J. Steinhardt
  • Herman Verlinde
  • Liantao Wang
  • Stephen Adler (IAS)
  • Juan Maldacena (IAS)
  • Nathan Seiberg (IAS)
  • Ed Witten (IAS)
• Mathematical Physics
• Particle and Nuclear Astrophysics

• Quantitative and Computational Biology
• Cosmology at Princeton
• Lewis-Sigler Institute
• Princeton Center for Theoretical Science
• Princeton Institute for the Science
  and Technology of Materials

I work on string theory and its applications to the understanding of black holes, phase transitions, and strongly coupled gauge theories. I focus particularly on the gauge-string duality, which relates gauge theories in four flat spacetime dimensions to string theory in five or ten curved dimensions. The gauge theories that can be described in this way are relatives of quantum chromodynamics, which is the theory of quarks and gluons. There is growing hope that the gauge-string duality may be able to describe aspects of heavy-ion collisions. Such collisions cause protons and neutrons to melt into their constituent quarks and gluons, and it is generally believed that a locally thermalized state forms: the quark-gluon plasma. The strategy of the gauge-string duality is to compare the properties of the quark-gluon plasma to black holes in five curved dimensions. The results of such comparisons include predictions for the shear and bulk viscosity and the magnitude and pattern of energy loss from energetic heavy quarks. There are significant challenges in comparing string theory predictions to data, but successes to date are sufficient to motivate further work. I have long been interested in black hole phase transitions, especially the tendency for horizons to become spatially inhomogeneous. I recently suggested several mechanisms by which black holes can go through a superconducting phase transition at finite temperature. I maintain interests also in theoretical cosmology and in more formal aspects of the gauge-string duality. You can visit my homepage and a page on computational aspects of my work on heavy-ion collisions.

S e l e c t e d P u b l i c a t i o n s:

S.S. Gubser, I.R. Klebanov, A.W. Peet Entropy and Temperature of Black 3-Branes Phys. Rev. D 54, 3915 - 3919 (1996) hep-th/9602135 S.S. Gubser, I.R. Klebanov, A.M. Polyakov Gauge theory correlators from noncritical string theory Phys.Lett., B428:105-114, 1998 hep-th/9802109 S. S. Gubser, I. R. Klebanov and A. M. Polyakov A semi-classical limit of the gauge/string correspondence Nucl.Phys. B636 (2002) 99-114 hep-th/0204051 Adi Nusser, S. S. Gubser and P. J. E. Peebles Structure Formation With a Long-Range Scalar Dark Matter Interaction Phys.Rev. D71 (2005) 083505 astro-ph/0412586 Steven S. Gubser Drag force in AdS/CFT Phys.Rev. D74 (2006) 126005 hep-th/0605182 Steven S. Gubser, Silviu S. Pufu and Amos Yarom Sonic booms and diffusion wakes generated by a heavy quark in thermal AdS/CFT 0706.4307 Steven S. Gubser, Abhinav Nellore, Silviu S. Pufu and Fabio D. Rocha Thermodynamics and bulk viscosity of approximate black hole duals to finite temperature quantum chromodynamics 0804.1950 Steven S. Gubser and Silviu S. Pufu The gravity dual of a p-wave superconductor 0805.2960