Abstract: Unraveling AdS/CFT: What string theory tells us about the quark-gluon plasma
The conjectured correspondence between a string theory in ten dimensions and certain supersymmetric gauge theories
in four has recently garnered considerable attention from scientists studying the hot matter produced in heavy
ion collisions. An important and immediate question is then to what extent one can hope to
describe the dynamics of the quark gluon plasma in a supersymmetric conformal field theory. In this
talk I review recent applications of the AdS/CFT correspondence to the strongly interacting matter produced at
the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. Progress in characterizing the medium with these techniques will be discussed,
as well as limitations inherent to the method.