On partition functions and phases of scalars in AdS

Abstract: We study the phases of scalar field theories in thermal $AdS_{d+1}$ spaces for $d=1,2,3$. The analysis is done for theories with global $O(N)$ symmetry for the finite as well as large $N$. The symmetry-preserving and symmetry-breaking phases are identified as a function of the mass-squared of the scalar field and temperature. On the way we also describe a method for computing one-loop partition function for scalar field on thermal $AdS_{d+1}$ for arbitrary $d$ that reproduces results known in the literature. The derivation is based on the method of images and uses the eigenfunctions of the Laplacian on Euclidean $AdS$.