We consider the one-loop partition function of free quantum field theory in locally Anti-de Sitter space-times. In three dimensions, the one loop determinants for scalar, gauge and graviton excitations are computed explicitly using heat kernel techniques. We obtain precisely the result anticipated by Brown and Henneaux: the partition function includes a sum over "boundary excitations" of AdS3, which are the Virasoro descendants of empty Anti-de Sitter space. This result also allows us to compute the one-loop corrections to the Euclidean action of the BTZ black hole as well its higher genus generalizations.
We compute the heat kernel for the Laplacians of symmetric transverse traceless fields of arbitrary spin on the $AdS$ background in even number of dimensions using the group theoretic approach introduced in \cite{Gopakumar:2011qs} and apply it on the partition function of six dimensional conformal gravity. The obtained partition function consists of the Einstein gravity, conformal ghost and two modes that contain mass.
We analyze aspects of the holographic principle relevant to the quantum gravity partition functions in Euclidean sector of AdS$_3$. The sum of the known contributions to the partitions functions can be presented exactly, including corrections, in the form where the Patterson-Selberg zeta function involves.
The three-dimensional pure quantum gravity with a negative cosmological constant has been conjectured to be dual to an extremal conformal field theory (ECFT), of central charge c=24k for some positive integer k. We compute the partition function of the dual ECFT by summing over gravitational instanton contributions. In particular, we conjecture an exact expression for the contribution from handlebodies to the partition function for all genera and all values of k, and provide nontrivial evidences for the conjecture at genus two.
We study a geometry of the partition function which is defined in terms of a solution of the five-term relation. It is shown that the 3-dimensional hyperbolic structure or Euclidean AdS_3 naturally arises in the classical limit of this invariant. We discuss that the oriented ideal tetrahedron can be assigned to the partition function of string.
We derive the partition functions of the Schwarz-type four-dimensional topological half-flat 2-form gravity model on K3-surface or T^4 up to on-shell one-loop corrections. In this model the bosonic moduli spaces describe an equivalent class of a trio of the Einstein-Kähler forms (the hyperkähler forms). The integrand of the partition function is represented by the product of some $\bar \partial$-torsions.
Motivated by recent works on the connection between 2D quantum gravity and timelike Liouville theory, we revisit the latter and clarify some aspects of the computation of its partition function: We present a detailed computation of the Liouville partition function on the fluctuating sphere at finite values of the central charge. The results for both the spacelike theory and the timelike theory are given, and their properties analyzed. We discuss the derivation of the partition function from the DOZZ formula, its derivation using the Coulomb gas approach, a semiclassical computation of it using…
We define a physical Hilbert space for the three-dimensional lattice gravity of Ponzano and Regge and establish its isomorphism to the ones in the $ISO(3)$ Chern-Simons theory. It is shown that, for a handlebody of any genus, a Hartle-Hawking-type wave-function of the lattice gravity transforms into the corresponding state in the Chern-Simons theory under this isomorphism. Using the Heegaard splitting of a three-dimensional manifold, a partition function of each of these theories is expressed as an inner product of such wave-functions. Since the isomorphism preserves the inner products, the pa…
The $T{\bar T}$ deformation of a relativistic two-dimensional theory results in a solvable gravitational theory. Deformed scattering amplitudes can be obtained from coupling the undeformed theory to the flat space Jackiw--Teitelboim (JT) gravity. We show that the JT description is applicable and useful also in finite volume. Namely, we calculate the torus partition function of an arbitrary matter theory coupled to the JT gravity, formulated in the first order (vierbein) formalism. The first order description provides a natural set of dynamical clocks and rods for this theory, analogous to the …
We show that the one-loop partition function of any higher spin field in $(d+1)$-dimensional Anti-de Sitter spacetime can be expressed as an integral transform of an $\text{SO}(2,d)$ bulk character and an $\text{SO}(2,d-2)$ edge character. We apply this character integral formula to various higher-spin Vasiliev gravities and find miraculous (almost) cancellations between bulk and edge characters that lead to agreement with the predictions of HS/CFT holography. We also discuss about the relation between the character integral representation and Rindler-AdS thermal partition function.
We compute the 2-loop thermal partition function of Yang-Mills theory on a small 3-sphere, in the large N limit with weak 't Hooft coupling. We include N_s scalars and N_f chiral fermions in the adjoint representation of the gauge group (S)U(N), with arbitrary Yukawa and quartic scalar couplings, assuming only commutator interactions. From this computation one can extract information on the perturbative corrections to the spectrum of the theory, and the correction to its Hagedorn temperature. Furthermore, the computation of the 2-loop partition function is a necessary step towards determining …
We present the extension of the Lagrangian $loop$ representation in such a way to introduce matter fields. The partition function of lattice compact U(1) Gauge-Higgs model is expressed as a sum over closed as much as open surfaces. These surfaces correspond to world sheets of loop-like pure electric flux excitations and open electric flux tubes carrying matter fields at their ends. There is a duality transformation between this description in terms of loop world sheets and the $topological$ representation in terms of world sheets of Nielsen-Olesen strings both closed and open joining pairs of …
We generalize Nakajima-Yoshioka's blowup formula to calculate the partition functions counting the spectrum of bound states to half-BPS Wilson loop operators in 5d (and 6d) supersymmetric field theories. The partition function in the presence of a Wilson loop operator on the $Ω$-background is factorized when put on the blowup $\hat{\mathbb{C}}^2$ into two Wilson loop partition functions under the localization. This structure provides a set of blowup equations for Wilson loop operators. We explain how to formulate the blowup equations and solve them to compute the partition functions of Wilson …
We compute the 1-loop partition function for strings in $AdS_4\times\mathbb{CP}^3$, whose worldsheets end along a line with small cusp angles in the boundary of AdS. We obtain these 1-loop results in terms of the vacuum energy for on-shell modes. Our results verify the proposal by Lewkowycz and Maldacena in arXiv:1312.5682 for the exact Bremsstrahlung function up to the next to leading order in the strong coupling expansion. The agreement is observed for cusps distorting either the 1/2 BPS or the 1/6 BPS Wilson line.
We compute the one loop partition function of type IIB string in plane wave R-R 5-form background $F^5$ using both path integral and operator formalisms and show that the two results agree perfectly. The result turns out to be equal to the partition function in the flat background. We also study the Tadpole cancellation for the unoriented closed and open string model in plane wave R-R 5-form background studied in hep-th/0203249 and find that the cancellation of the Tadpole requires the gauge group to be SO(8).
We study the Turaev-Viro invariant as the Euclidean Chern-Simons-Witten gravity partition function with positive cosmological constant. After explaining why it can be identified as the partition function of 3-dimensional gravity, we show that the initial data of the TV invariant can be constructed from the duality data of a certain class of rational conformal field theories, and that, in particular, the original Turaev-Viro's initial data is associated with the $A_{k+1}$ modular invariant WZW model. As a corollary we then show that the partition function $Z(M)$ is bounded from above by $Z((S^2…
We examine the one-loop partition function describing the fluctuations of the superstring in a Schwarzschild-AdS$_5\times S^5$ background. On the bosonic side, we demonstrate the one-loop equivalence of the Nambu-Goto action and the Polyakov action for a general worldsheet, while on the fermionic side, we consider the reduction of the ten-dimensional Green-Schwarz fermion action to a two-dimensional worldsheet action. We derive the partition functions of the worldsheets corresponding to both straight and parallel Wilson lines. We show that the UV divergences of the functional determinants in t…
We perform two independent calculations of the two-loop partition function for the large N 't Hooft limit of the plane-wave matrix model, conjectured to be dual to the decoupled little string theory of a single spherical type IIA NS5-brane. The first is via a direct two-loop path-integral calculation in the matrix model, while the second employs the one-loop dilatation operator of four-dimensional N = 4 Yang-Mills theory truncated to the SU(2|4) subsector. We find precise agreement between the results of the two calculations. Various polynomials appearing in the result have rather special prop…
The 1-loop partition function of the handle-body solutions in the AdS$_3$ gravity have been derived some years ago using the heat-kernel and the method of images. In the semiclassical limit, such partition function should correspond to the order $O (c^0)$ part in the partition function of dual conformal field theory on the boundary Riemann surface. The higher genus partition function could be computed by the multi-point functions in the Riemann sphere via sewing prescription. In the large central charge limit, to the leading order of $c$, the multi-point function is further simplified to be a …
We consider pure three-dimensional quantum gravity with a negative cosmological constant. The sum of known contributions to the partition function from classical geometries can be computed exactly, including quantum corrections. However, the result is not physically sensible, and if the model does exist, there are some additional contributions. One possibility is that the theory may have long strings and a continuous spectrum. Another possibility is that complex geometries need to be included, possibly leading to a holomorphically factorized partition function. We analyze the subleading correc…
We discuss integrable aspects of the logarithmic contribution of the partition function of cosmological critical topologically massive gravity. On one hand, written in terms of Bell polynomials which describe the statistics of set partitions, the partition function of the logarithmic fields is a generating function of the potential Burgers hierarchy. On the other hand, the polynomial variables are solutions of the Kadomtsev-Petviashvili equation, and the partition function is a KP $τ$ function, making more precise the solitonic nature of the logarithmic fields being counted. We show that the p…
We continue the study of the one-loop partition function of AdS$_3$ gravity with focus on the square-integrability condition on the fluctuating fields. In a previous work we found that the Brown-Henneaux boundary conditions follow directly from the $L^2$ condition. Here we rederive the partition function as a ratio of Laplacian determinants by performing a suitable decomposition of the metric fluctuations. We pay special attention to the asymptotics of the fields appearing in the partition function. We also show that in the usual computation using ghost fields for the de Donder gauge, such gau…
We study weakly coupled SU(N) N = 4 super Yang-Mills theory on R x S^3 at infinite N, which has interesting thermodynamics, including a Hagedorn transition, even at zero Yang-Mills coupling. We calculate the exact one-loop partition function below the Hagedorn temperature. Our calculation employs the representation of the one-loop dilatation operator as a spin chain Hamiltonian acting on neighboring sites and a generalization of Polya's counting of `necklaces' (gauge-invariant operators) to include necklaces with a `pendant' (an operator which acts on neighboring beads). We find that the one-l…
While the Euclidean two-dimensional gravitational path integral is in general highly fluctuating, it admits a semiclassical two-sphere saddle if coupled to a matter CFT with large and positive central charge. In Weyl gauge this gravity theory is known as timelike Liouville theory, and is conjectured to be a non-unitary two-dimensional CFT. We explore the semiclassical limit of timelike Liouville theory by calculating the two-sphere partition function from the perspective of the path integral to three-loop order, extending the work in 2106.01665. We also compare our result to the conjectured al…
In this note we point out that the one-loop partition function of three-dimensional flat gravity, computed along the lines originally developed for the anti-de Sitter case, reproduces characters of the BMS3 group.
We evaluate the 1-loop partition function of conformal gravity in four dimensions around an $AdS_4$ background, using the heat kernel techniques. We give expressions for the relevant thermodynamical quantities and compare our results with the ones from the literature.
There is a remarkable connection between quantum generating functions of field theory and formal power series associated with dimensions of chains and homologies of suitable Lie algebras. We discuss the homological aspects of this connection with its applications to partition functions of the minimal three-dimensional gravities in the space-time asymptotic to AdS3, which also describe the three-dimensional Euclidean black holes, the pure N = 1 supergravity, and a sigma model on N-fold generalized symmetric products. We also consider in the same context elliptic genera of some supersymmetric si…
We use the techniques of supersymmetric localization to compute the BPS black hole entropy in N=2 supergravity. We focus on the n_v+1 vector multiplets on the black hole near horizon background which is AdS_2 x S^2 space. We find the localizing saddle point of the vector multiplets by solving the localization equations, and compute the exact one loop partition function on the saddle point. Furthermore, we propose the appropriate functional integration measure. Through this measure, the one loop determinant is written in terms of the radius of the physical metric, which depends on the localizin…
We determine the partition function of 1/16 BPS operators in N=4 SYM at weak coupling at the one-loop level in the planar limit. This partition function is significantly different from the one computed at zero coupling. We find that it coincides precisely with the partition function of a gas of 1/16 BPS `supergravitons' in AdS_5xS^5.
For pure gravity in AdS_3, Witten has given a recipe for the construction of holomorphically factorizable partition functions of pure gravity theories with central charge c=24k. The partition function was found to be a polynomial in the modular invariant j-function. We show that the partition function can be obtained instead as a modular sum which has a more physical interpretation as a sum over geometries. We express both the j-function and its derivative in terms of such a sum.
We evaluate the partition function of three dimensional theories of gravity in the quantum regime, where the AdS radius is Planck scale and the central charge is of order one. The contribution from the AdS vacuum sector can - with certain assumptions - be computed and equals the vacuum character of a minimal model CFT. The torus partition function is given by a sum over geometries which is finite and computable. For generic values of Newton's constant G and the AdS radius L the result has no Hilbert space interpretation, but in certain cases it agrees with the partition function of a known CFT…
We compute the one-loop beta-functions for renormalisable quantum gravity coupled to scalars using the co-ordinate space approach and generalised Schwinger De Witt technique. We resolve apparent contradictions with the corresponding momentum space calculations, and indicate how our results also resolve similar inconsistencies in the fermion case.
The one-loop partition function of the $f(R,R_{μν}R^{μν})$ gravity theory is obtained around AdS$_4$ background. After suitable choice of the gauge condition and computation of the ghost determinant, we obtain the one-loop partition function of the theory. The traced heat kernel over the thermal quotient of AdS$_4$ space is also computed and the thermal partition function is obtained for this theory. We have then consider quantum corrections to the thermodynamical quantities in some special cases.
The partition function of four dimensional SO(4) Yang-Mills theory is rewritten in terms of variables admitting straightforward relation to the partition function of pure 4D gravity. The gauge action turns into first-order Hilbert-Palatini action for Einstein gravity with a simple extra term added. The proposed relation can be substantiated as a duality for the partition functions provided a special gauge is imposed for the gravity. The same method allows to find a closed expression for the partition function of the SO(4) gauge theory.
Quantum theory of 2d gravity is examined by including a special quantum correction, which corresponds to the open string loop corrections and provides a new conformal anomaly for the corresponding $σ$ model. This anomaly leads to the condensation of the tachyon, and the resultant effective theory implies a possibility of extending the 2d gravity to the case of $c>1$.
The graviton 1-loop partition function in Euclidean topologically massive gravity (TMG) is calculated using heat kernel techniques. The partition function does not factorize holomorphically, and at the chiral point it has the structure expected from a logarithmic conformal field theory. This gives strong evidence for the proposal that the dual conformal field theory to TMG at the chiral point is indeed logarithmic. We also generalize our results to new massive gravity.
Macroscopic loop amplitudes are obtained for the dilation gravity in two-dimensions. The dependence on the macroscopic loop length $l$ is completely determined by using the Wheeler-DeWitt equation in the mini-superspace approximation. The dependence on the cosmological constant $Λ$ is also determined by using the scaling argument in addition.
The quantum properties of two-dimensional matter-dilaton gravity ---which includes a large family of actions for two-dimensional gravity (in particular, string-inspired models)--- are investigated. The one-loop divergences in linear covariant gauges are calculated and the structure of the one-loop renormalization is studied. The explicit forms of the dilaton potential, dilaton-Maxwell, and dilaton-scalar couplings for which the theory is one-loop multiplicatively renormalizable are found. A comparison with the one-loop renormalization structure of four-dimensional gravity-matter theory is give…
The one-loop effective action for Einstein gravity in a special one-parameter background gauge is calculated up to first order in a gauge parameter. It is shown that the effective action does not depend upon the gauge parameter on shell.
We present a semi-recursive method for calculating the rational parts of one-loop gravity amplitudes which utilises axial gauge diagrams to determine the non-factorising pieces of the amplitude. This method is used to compute the one-loop amplitudes M(1-,2+,3+,4+,5+) and M(1-,2+,3+,4+,5+,6+).
We compute the contribution of the vacuum Virasoro representation to the genus-two partition function of an arbitrary CFT with central charge $c>1$. This is the perturbative pure gravity partition function in three dimensions. We employ a sewing construction, in which the partition function is expressed as a sum of sphere four-point functions of Virasoro vacuum descendants. For this purpose, we develop techniques to efficiently compute correlation functions of holomorphic operators, which by crossing symmetry are determined exactly by a finite number of OPE coefficients; this is an analytic im…
We study the one loop renormalization in the most general metric-dilaton theory with second derivative only. In constant background dilaton theory, there are two types of gravity background which enable the theory renormalizable at one-loop level. We show this concretely to discuss on the spherical symmetric background.
We analyse the divergences of the three-loop partition function at fixed area in 2D quantum gravity. Considering the Liouville action in the Kahler formalism, we extract the coefficient of the leading divergence in $\sim AΛ^2 (\ln AΛ^2)^2$. This coefficient is non-vanishing. We discuss the counterterms one can and must add and compute their precise contribution to the partition function. This allows us to conclude that every local and non-local divergence in the partition function can be balanced by local counterterms, with the only exception of the maximally non-local divergence $(\ln AΛ^2)^3…
We review aspects of loop quantum gravity and spin foam models at an introductory level, with special attention to questions frequently asked by non-specialists.
We investigate the correlators in unitary minimal conformal models coupled to two-dimensional gravity from the two-matrix model. We show that simple fusion rules for all of the scaling operators exist. We demonstrate the role played by the boundary operators and discuss its connection to how loops touch each other.
Two-dimensional Maxwell-dilaton quantum gravity, which covers a large family of the actions for two-dimensional gravity (in particular, string-inspired models) is investigated. Charged black holes which appear in the theory are briefly discussed. The one-loop divergences in the linear covariant gauges are calculated. It is shown that for some choices of the dilaton potential and dilaton-Maxwell coupling, the theory is one-loop multiplicatively renormalizable (or even finite). A comparison with the divergences structure of four-dimensional Einstein-Maxwell gravity is given.
We discuss two-dimensional quantum gravity coupled to conformal matter and fixed area in a semiclassical large and negative matter central charge limit. In this setup the gravity theory -- otherwise highly fluctuating -- admits a round two-sphere saddle. We discuss the two-sphere partition function up to two-loop order from the path integral perspective. This amounts to studying Feynman diagrams incorporating the fixed area constraint on the round two-sphere. In particular we find that all ultraviolet divergences cancel to this order. We compare our results with the two-sphere partition functi…
One-loop calculations in quantum gravity coupled to U(1)-Abelian fields (photon fields) are ultraviolet finite and cutoff-free in the framework of causal perturbation theory. We compute the photon loop correction to the graviton propagator and the photon self-energy in second order perturbation theory. Perturbative gauge invariance to second order is shown and generates the gravitational Slavnov-Ward identities.
We introduce in a natural and straigthforward way the $loop$ (Lagrangian) $representation$ for the partition function of pure compact lattice QED. The corresponding classical lattice loop action is proportional to the quadratic area of the loop world sheets. We discuss the parallelism between the $loop$ formulation of this model in terms of world sheets of loops and the $topological$ representation of the Higgs (broken) phase for the non-compact lattice QED in terms of world sheets of Nielsen-Olesen strings.
We calculate the one loop partition function for topologically massive higher spin gravity (TMHSG) for arbitrary spin by taking the spin-3 TMHSG action constructed in arXiv:1107.0915 and subsequently generalising it for an arbitrary spin. We find that the final result can be put into a product form which cannot be holomorphically factorized giving strong evidence that the topologically massive higher spin gravity is dual to a high spin extension of logarithmic CFT rather than a chiral one.
In this paper we describe an approach to construct semiclassical partition functions in gravity which are complete in the sense that they contain a complete description of the differentiable structures of the underlying 4-manifold. In addition, we find our construction naturally includes cosmic strings. We discuss some possible applications of the partition functions in the fields of both quantum gravity and topological string theory
We calculate the gravity one-loop partition function of three-dimensional parity even tricritical gravity. Agreement with logarithmic conformal field theory single-particle partition functions on the field theory side is found and we furthermore discover a partially massless limit of linearized six-derivative parity even gravity. Then we define a "truncation" of the critical theory, at the level of the partition function, by calculating black hole determinants via summation over quasi-normal mode spectra and discriminating against those modes which are not present in the physical spectrum. Thi…
The graviton 1-loop partition function is calculated for Euclidean generalised massive gravity (GMG) using AdS heat kernel techniques. We find that the results fit perfectly into the AdS/(L)CFT picture. Conformal Chern-Simons gravity, a singular limit of GMG, leads to an additional contribution in the 1-loop determinant from the conformal ghost. We show that this contribution has a nice interpretation on the conformal field theory side in terms of a semi-classical null vector at level two descending from a primary with conformal weights (3/2,-1/2).
Algebraic aspects of the computation of partition functions for quantum gravity and black holes in $AdS_3$ are discussed. We compute the sub-leading quantum corrections to the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy. It is shown that the quantum corrections to the classical result can be included systematically by making use of the comparison with conformal field theory partition functions, via the $AdS_3/CFT_2$ correspondence. This leads to a better understanding of the role of modular and spectral functions, from the point of view of the representation theory of infinite-dimensional Lie algebras. Besides…
We apply a recent argument of Verlinde to loop quantum gravity, to conclude that Newton's law of gravity emerges in an appropriate limit and setting. This is possible because the relationship between area and entropy is realized in loop quantum gravity when boundaries are imposed on a quantum spacetime.
With the recently discovered formula, which relates the off shell Euclidean one loop determinant to the on shell quantities such as normal and quasinormal modes in real spacetime, we work out the one loop partition function for $\mathcal{N}=1$ supergravity in AdS$_3$ from scratch. In passing, we also provide the explicit expression for one loop determinant of a field with arbitrary spin in AdS$_3$. To achieve this, we firstly derive the determinant expression for the one loop partition function in question using the powerful decomposition technique, and then we construct the normal modes in a …
Some universalities in the partition functions of low-dimensional gravity models
International Centre for Theoretical Physics Asia-Pacific, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences（国际理论物理中心亚太分部，中国科学院大学）；Asia Pacific Center for Theoretical Physics, Pohang University of Science and Technology（亚太理论物理中心，浦项科技大学）
