Holographic (De)confinement Transitions in Cosmological Backgrounds
  For type IIB supergravity with a running axio-dilaton, we construct bulk
solutions which admit a cosmological background metric of
Friedmann-Robertson-Walker type. These solutions include both a dark radiation
term in the bulk as well as a four-dimensional (boundary) cosmological
constant, while gravity at the boundary remains non-dynamical. We
holographically calculate the stress-energy tensor, showing that it consists of
two contributions: The first one, generated by the dark radiation term, leads
to the thermal fluid of N = 4 SYM theory, while the second, the conformal
anomaly, originates from the boundary cosmological constant. Conservation of
the boundary stress tensor implies that the boundary cosmological constant is
time-independent, such that there is no exchange between the two stress-tensor
contributions. We then study (de)confinement by evaluating the Wilson loop in
these backgrounds. While the dark radiation term favours deconfinement, a
negative cosmological constant drives the system into a confined phase. When
both contributions are present, we find an oscillating universe with negative
cosmological constant which undergoes periodic (de)confinement transitions as
the scale of three space expands and re-contracts.
