HOLOGRAPHIC MESONS: ADDING FLAVOR TO THE ADS/CFT DUALITY

We study mesons in an [Formula: see text] super Yang-Mills theory with fundamental matter from its dual string theory on AdS5 × S5 with a D7-brane probe. For quarks with a finite mass mq, the meson spectrum is discrete and exhibits a mass gap of order [Formula: see text]. The spectrum of mesons with large spin J is obtained from semiclassical rotating open strings attached to the D7-brane. It displays Regge behaviour for [Formula: see text] whereas for [Formula: see text] it corresponds to that of two non-relativistic quarks bound by a Coulomb potential. We calculate 〈 Tr F2〉 around an isolated quark, to gain insight into the Regge behaviour of the spinning mesons.