Renormalization group flows in gauge-gravity duality
  This is a copy of the 2009 Princeton University thesis which examined various aspects of gauge/gravity duality, including renormalization group flows, phase transitions of the holographic entanglement entropy, and instabilities associated with the breaking of supersymmetry. Chapter 5 contains new unpublished material on various instabilities of the weakly curved non-supersymmetric $AdS_4$ backgrounds of M-theory. 
Arvind Murugan
hep-th