AdS/CFT Correspondence in Condensed Matter

The goal of this text is to introduce, in a very elementary way, the concept of anti-de Sitter/Conformal Field Theory (AdS/CFT) correspondence to condensed matter physicists. This theory relates a gravity theory in a (d+1)-dimensional anti-de Sitter space time to a strongly coupled d-dimensional quantum field theory living on its boundary. The AdS/CFT correspondence can be used to study finite temperature real time processes, such as response functions and dynamics far from equilibrium in quantum critical points in condensed matter systems. Computation of these quantities is reduced to solving classical gravitational equations in one higher dimension than the original theory.