Numerical tests of the gauge/gravity duality conjecture for D0-branes at finite temperature and finite N

Abstract: According to the gauge/gravity duality conjecture, the thermodynamics of gauge theory describing D-branes corresponds to that of black branes in superstring theory. We test this conjecture directly in the case of D0-branes by applying Monte Carlo methods to the corresponding gauge theory, which takes the form of the BFSS matrix quantum mechanics. In particular, we take the continuum limit by extrapolating the UV cutoff to infinity. First we perform simulations at large N so that string loop corrections can be neglected on the gravity side. Our results for the internal energy exhibit the temperature dependence consistent with the prediction including the \alpha ' corrections. Next we perform simulations at small N but at lower temperature so that the \alpha ' corrections can be neglected on the gravity side. Our results are consistent with the prediction including the leading string loop correction, which suggests that the conjecture holds even at finite N.