Würzburg Seminar on Quantum Field Theory and Gravity

Holographic methods have long provided valuable insights into QCD-like theories and other strongly coupled systems. In this talk, I present new work in this direction, which uses SUSY solitons in 5d gauged supergravity to systematically construct smooth gravity backgrounds dual to confining and gapped systems. I will introduce novel solutions across different supergravity theories, including setups with fundamental matter. The dual field theories flow from UV superconformal fixed points to well-defined IR SQFTs in one dimension lower. A range of field-theory observables is computed holographically, exhibiting universality and providing strong evidence for confinement and a mass gap. Finally, I will highlight an intriguing numerical result concerning the entanglement entropy between different gauge and fundamental degrees of freedom in quiver theories.