An Introduction to Gauge Gravity Duality and Its Application in Condensed Matter

Understand

The past few years have witnessed a remarkable crossover of string theoretical ideas from the abstract world of geometrical forms to the concrete experimental realm of condensed matter physics.

• The basis for this --- variously known as holography, the AdS/CFT correspondence or gauge-gravity duality --comes from notions right at the cutting edge of string theory.
• Nevertheless, the insights afforded can often be expressed in ways very familiar to condensed matter physicists, such as relationships between response functions and new sum rules.
• The aim of this short, introductory review is to survey the ideas underpinning this crossover, in a way that -- as far as possible -- strips them of sophisticated mathematical formalism, whilst at the same time retaining their fundamental essence.