Advances in the holographic description of hot and dense QCD matter

Abstract: We review and extend recent progress on QCD-like phases at nonzero temperature and chemical potentials within the gauge-gravity duality. We focus on the Witten-Sakai-Sugimoto model, a top-down approach based on string theory which allows for a unified treatment of mesons, baryons and quarks. Phases such as pion condensation, baryonic and quarkyonic matter are located in the phase diagram, and we discuss predictions as well as weaknesses and limitations of this holographic approach. One of the novelties included in this review is the first holographic construction of a pionic phase between BEC and BCS regimes, which however is found to be metastable. We also discuss future directions in holographic QCD, within the model used here and in a wider context.