Phase Transitions, Inhomogeneous Horizons and Second-Order Hydrodynamics

Understand

We use holography to study the spinodal instability of a four-dimensional, strongly-coupled gauge theory with a first-order thermal phase transition.

• We place the theory on a cylinder in a set of homogeneous, unstable initial states.
• The dual gravity configurations are black branes afflicted by a Gregory-Laflamme instability.
• We numerically evolve Einstein's equations to follow the instability until the system settles down to a stationary, inhomogeneous black brane.