Gauge/Gravity Duality and Strongly Coupled Light-Front Dynamics

Abstract: We find a correspondence between semiclassical gauge theories quantized on the light-front and a dual gravity model in anti-de Sitter (AdS) space, thus providing an initial approximation to QCD in its strongly coupled regime. This correspondence -- light-front holography -- leads to a light-front Hamiltonian and relativistic bound-state wave equations in terms of an invariant impact variable $\zeta$ which measures the separation of the quark and gluonic constituents within the hadron at equal light-front time. Light-front holography also allows a precise mapping of transition amplitudes from AdS to physical space-time. In contrast with the usual AdS/QCD framework, the internal structure of hadrons is explicitly introduced in the gauge/gravity correspondence and the angular momentum of the constituents plays a key role. We also discuss how to introduce higher Fock-states in the correspondence as well as their relevance for describing the detailed structure of space and time-like form factors.