Phase Transitions, Inhomogeneous Horizons and Second-Order Hydrodynamics

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Abstract
We use holography to study the spinodal instability of a four-dimensional, strongly-coupled gauge theory with a first-order thermal phase transition. We place the theory on a cylinder in a set of homogeneous, unstable initial states. The dual gravity configurations are black branes afflicted by a Gergory-Laflamme instability. We numerically evolve Einstein's equations to follow the instability until the system settles down to some static, inhomogeneous black brane. The dual gauge theory states have constant temperature but non-constant energy density. We show that the time evolution of the instability and the final states are accurately described by second-order hydrodynamics. In the static limit, the latter reduces to a single, second-order, non-linear differential equation from which the inhomogeneous final states can be derived.

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