Improved Holographic QCD and the Quark-gluon Plasma

Abstract

We review construction of the improved holographic models for QCD-like confining gauge theories and their applications to the physics of the quark–gluon plasma. We also review recent progress in this area of research. The lecture notes start from the vacuum structure of these theories, then develop calculation of thermodynamic and hydrodynamic observables, energy loss and momentum broadening of heavy probes, and end with more advanced topics such as the holographic QCD in the presence of external magnetic fields. This is a summary of the lectures presented at the LVI Cracow School of Theoretical Physics in spring 2016 at Zakopane, Poland.