TASI Lectures on Applications of Gauge/Gravity Duality

Abstract: We introduce the gauge/gravity, or AdS/CFT, correspondence with an eye towards its application to strongly coupled systems. We provide an overview of the duality, including the AdS/CFT dictionary and holographic renormalization. We then discuss simple correlation functions in the context of renormalization group flow geometries, holographic thermodynamics and an application to the phase diagram of QCD, real-time correlators and the shear viscosity of strongly coupled field theories, holographic superconductors, and the application of holographic fermionic response to strange metals. These lectures were delivered at TASI 2017.