Within the AdS/CFT correspondence, we review the studies of field theories with a large number of adjoint and fundamental fields, in the Veneziano limit. We concentrate in set‐ups where the fundamentals are introduced by a smeared set of D‐branes. We make emphasis on the general ideas and then in subsequent chapters that can be read independently and describe particular considerations in various different models. Some new material is presented along the various sections.

We construct supergravity plus branes solutions, which we argue to be related to 4d $\mathcal{N}=1$ SQCD with a quartic superpotential. The geometries depend on the ratio $N_f/N_c$ which can be kept of order one, present a good singularity at the origin, and are weakly curved elsewhere. We support our field theory interpretation by studying a variety of features like $R$-symmetry breaking, instantons, Seiberg duality, Wilson loops and pair creation, running of couplings, and domain walls. In a second part of this paper, we address a different problem: the analysis of the interesting physics of different members of a family of supergravity solutions dual to (unflavored) $\mathcal{N}=1$ SYM plus some UV completion. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.73.086005 © 2006 The American Physical Society