We continue to investigate planar four point worldsheet correlators of string theories which are conjectured to be duals of free gauge theories. We focus on the extremal correlators <Tr(Z^{J_1}(x)) Tr(Z^{J_2}(y)) Tr(Z^{J_3}(z)) Tr(\bar{Z}^{J}(0))> of $N = 4$ SYM theory, and construct the corresponding worldsheet correlators in the limit when the $J_i >> 1$. The worldsheet correlator gets contributions, in this limit, from a whole family of Feynman graphs. We find that it is supported on a {\it curve} in the moduli space parametrised by the worldsheet crossratio. In a further limit of the spacetime correlators we find this curve to be the unit circle. In this case, we also check that the entire worldsheet correlator displays the appropriate crossing symmetry. The non-renormalization of the extremal correlators in the 't Hooft coupling offers a potential window for a comparison of these results with those from strong coupling.
The Schwinger representation gives a systematic procedure for recasting large N field theory amplitudes as integrals over closed string moduli space. This procedure has recently been applied to a class of free field four point functions by Aharony, Komargodski and Razamat, to study the leading terms in the putative worldsheet OPE. Here we observe that the dictionary between Schwinger parameters and the cross ratio of the four punctured sphere actually yields an explicit expression for the full worldsheet four point correlator in many such cases. This expression has a suggestive form and obeys …
We construct the operator product expansions (OPE) of the chiral primary operators in the worldsheet theory for strings on AdS_3 x S^3 x T^4. As an interesting application, we will use the worldsheet OPEs to derive a recursion relation for a particular class of extremal p-point correlators on the sphere. We compare our result with the corresponding recursion relation previously found in the symmetric orbifold theory on the boundary of AdS_3.
We explore the connection between the operator product expansion (OPE) in the boundary and worldsheet conformal field theories in the context of AdS$_{d+1}$/CFT$_d$ correspondence. Considering single trace scalar operators in the boundary theory and using the saddle point analysis of the worldsheet OPE [1], we derive an explicit relation between OPE coefficients in the boundary and worldsheet theories for the contribution of single trace spin $\ell$ operators to the OPE. We also consider external vector operators and obtain the relation between OPE coefficients for the exchange of single trace…
The AdS(4)/CFT(3) duality is a new example of an integrable and exactly solvable AdS/CFT system. There is, however, a puzzling mismatch between the number of degrees of freedom used in the exact solution (4B+4F scattering states) and 8B+8F transverse oscillation modes of critical superstring theory. We offer a resolution of this puzzle by arguing that half of the string modes dissolve in the continuum of two-particle states once alpha' corrections are taken into account. We also check that the conjectured exact S-matrix of AdS(4)/CFT(3) agrees with the tree-level worldsheet calculation.
The AdS_3/CFT_2 correspondence is checked beyond the supergravity approximation by comparing correlation functions. To this end we calculate 2- and 3-point functions on the sphere of certain chiral primary operators for strings on AdS_3 x S^3 x T^4. These results are then compared with the corresponding amplitudes in the dual 2-dimensional conformal field theory. In the limit of small string coupling, where the sphere diagrams dominate the string perturbation series, beautiful agreement is found.
In this note we study worldsheet two- and four-point functions at the one-loop level for the type IIA superstring in AdS(3) x S(3) x M(4) . We first address the regularization ambiguity that appears in the dispersion relation derived from integrability. We demonstrate that only the regulator treating all fields equally respects worldsheet supersymmetry. This is done in an implicit regularization scheme where all divergent terms are collected into master tadpole-type integrals. We then investigate one-loop two-body scattering on the string worldsheet and verify that a recent proposal for the dr…
Superstring theory on ${\rm AdS}_3\times {\rm S}^3\times \mathbb{T}^4$ with the smallest amount of NS-NS flux (`$k=1$') is shown to be dual to the spacetime CFT given by the large $N$ limit of the free symmetric product orbifold $\mathrm{Sym}^N(\mathbb{T}^4)$. To define the worldsheet theory at $k=1$, we employ the hybrid formalism in which the ${\rm AdS}_3\times {\rm S}^3$ part is described by the $\mathfrak{psu}(1,1|2)_1$ WZW model (which is well defined). Unlike the case for $k\geq2$, it turns out that the string spectrum at $k=1$ does {\it not} exhibit the long string continuum, and perfec…
We continue our study of the worldsheet theory of superstrings on $\mathrm{AdS}_3 \times \mathrm{S}^3 \times \mathbb{T}^4$ in the tensionless limit arXiv:1911.00378. We consider the theory on higher genus surfaces. We give evidence that the worldsheet correlators localise on certain worldsheets that cover the boundary of $\mathrm{AdS}_3$ holomorphically. This simplifies the string moduli space integral dramatically to a finite sum. This property shows that the higher genus corrections of the string worldsheet reproduce the structure of the $1/N$ corrections in the dual symmetric orbifold CFT $…
We confront the recently proposed exact S-matrices for AdS(3)/CFT(2) with direct worldsheet calculations. Utilizing the BMN and Near Flat Space (NFS) expansions for strings on AdS(3) x S(3) x S(3) x S(1) and AdS(3) x S(3) x T(4) we compute both tree-level and one-loop scattering amplitudes. Up to some minor issues we find nice agreement in the tree-level sector. At the one-loop level however we find that certain non-zero tree-level processes, which are not visible in the exact solution, contribute, via the optical theorem, and give an apparent mismatch for certain amplitudes. Furthermore we fi…
The BPS correlators of the symmetric product orbifold $\text{Sym}_N(\mathbb{T}^4)$ are reproduced from the dual worldsheet theory describing strings on $\text{AdS}_3\times {\rm S}^3\times \mathbb{T}^4$ with minimal ($k=1$) NS-NS flux. More specifically, we show that the worldsheet duals of the symmetric orbifold BPS states can be identified with their lift to the covering surface, thereby making the matching of the correlators essentially manifest. We also argue that the argument can be generalised to arbitrary descendants, using suitable DDF operators on the worldsheet.
We calculate some extremal and non-extremal four-point functions on the sphere of certain chiral primary operators for strings on AdS_3 x S^3 x T^4. The computation is done for small values of the spacetime cross-ratio where global SL(2) and SU(2) descendants may be neglected in the intermediate channel. Ignoring also current algebra descendants, we find that in the non-extremal case the integrated worldsheet correlators factorize into spacetime three-point functions, which is non-trivial due to the integration over the moduli space. We then restrict to the extremal case and compare our result…
We formulate a set of consistency conditions appropriate to worldsheet form factors in the massive, integrable but non-relativistic, light-cone gauge fixed AdS(5) x S**5 string theory. We then perturbatively verify that these conditions hold, at tree level in the near-plane-wave limit and to one loop in the near-flat (Maldacena-Swanson) limit, for a number of specific cases. We further study the form factors in the weakly coupled dual description, verifying that the relevant conditions naturally hold for the one-loop Heisenberg spin-chain. Finally, we note that the near-plane-wave expressions …
We resolve a puzzle in the theory of strings propagating on locally flat spacetimes with nontrivial Wilson lines for stringy Z_N gauge symmetries. We find that strings probing such backgrounds are described by consistent worldsheet CFTs. The level mismatch in the twisted sectors is compensated by adjusting the quantization of momentum of strings winding around the Wilson line direction in units of 1/(N^2 R) rather than 1/(N R), as might have been classically expected. We demonstrate in various examples how this improvement of the naive orbifold prescription leads to satisfaction of general phy…
Light probes interacting with heavy bound states such as black holes give rise to interesting observables containing valuable dynamical information. Recently, a family of black hole microstates was shown to admit an exact string worldsheet description. We construct the physical vertex operators of these models, and derive their form in the low-energy AdS$_3$ limit. We then compute an extensive set of novel heavy-light correlators in these backgrounds. A subset of these provide the first match between worldsheet correlators in black hole microstates and the holographically dual conformal field …
We continue to investigate properties of the worldsheet conformal field theories (CFTs) which are conjectured to be dual to free large N gauge theories, using the mapping of Feynman diagrams to the worldsheet suggested in hep-th/0504229. The modular invariance of these CFTs is shown to be built into the formalism. We show that correlation functions in these CFTs which are localized on subspaces of the moduli space may be interpreted as delta-function distributions, and that this can be consistent with a local worldsheet description given some constraints on the operator product expansion coeff…
We use the AdS/CFT correspondence to discuss the response of an accelerated observer to the quantum vacuum fluctuations. In particular, we study heavy quarks probing a strongly coupled CFT by analysing strings moving in AdS. We propose that, in this context, a non-trivial detection rate is associated to the existence of a worldsheet horizon and we find an Unruh-like expression for the worldsheet temperature. Finally, by examining a rotating string in global AdS we find that there is a transition between string embeddings with and without worldsheet horizon. The dual picture corresponds to havi…
We compute a large collection of string worldsheet correlators describing light probes interacting with heavy black hole microstates. The heavy states consist of NS5 branes carrying momentum and/or fundamental string charge. In the fivebrane decoupling limit, worldsheet string theory on a family of such backgrounds is given by exactly solvable null-gauged WZW models. We construct physical vertex operators in these cosets, including all massless fluctuations. We first compute a large class of novel heavy-light-light-heavy correlators in the AdS$_3$ limit, where the light operators include those…
We consider compactifications of type II string theory using exact internal CFT's with central charge $c=9+ε$, $|ε| \ll 1$, leading to an effective potential for the dilaton. For $ε>0$ the potential is positive and the dilaton is ultimately driven to weak coupling. For $ε<0$ the dilaton is driven to strong coupling, but we can stabilise the background by including D-branes. The resulting minimum admits an $AdS_4$ solution where the cosmological constant is of the order $ε^3$ and the string coupling constant is of order $ε$. Furthermore these CFT's typically do not possess any massless or tachy…
We compute perturbative worldsheet S-matrix of beta-deformed AdS/CFT in the strong and weak `t Hooft coupling limit to compare with exact S-matrix. For the purpose we take near BMN limit of TsT-transformed AdS_5 x S^5 with the twisted boundary condition and compute the S-matrix on worldsheet using light-cone gauge fixed Lagrangian. For the weak coupling side, we compute the S-matrix in the SU(3) sector by applying coordinate Bethe ansatz method to the one-loop dilatation operator obtained from the deformed super Yang-Mills theory. These analysis support the conjectured exact S-matrix in the le…
We study real-time correlators in the warped AdS/CFT correspondence. We apply the prescription used in the usual AdS/CFT correspondence and obtain the retarded Green's functions for the scalar and vector fields in the spacelike warped and the null warped black hole backgrounds. We find that the retarded Green's functions and the cross sections are well consistent with the predictions from dual CFT. Our results not only support strongly the conjectured warped AdS/CFT correspondence, but also show that the usual relativistic AdS/CFT prescription of obtaining the real-time correlators remain effe…
We calculate all components of thermal R-current correlators from AdS/CFT correspondence for non-zero momentum and energy. In zero momentum limit, we find an analytic expression for the components Gxx(Gyy). The dielectric function of strong coupling is also presented and compared with that in weak coupling.
We consider the problem of bounding CFT correlators on the Euclidean section. By reformulating the question as an optimization problem, we construct functionals numerically which determine upper and lower bounds on correlators under several circumstances. A useful outcome of our analysis is that the gap maximization bootstrap problem can be reproduced by a numerically easier optimization problem. We find that the 3d Ising spin correlator takes the minimal possible allowed values on the Euclidean section. Turning to the maximization problem we find that for d > 2 there are gap-independent maxim…
Extending earlier results by Paulos, we discuss further the use of the embedding formalism and Mellin transform in the calculation of tree-level correlators of scalar and vector fields in AdS/CFT. We present an iterative procedure that builds amplitudes by sewing together lower-point off-shell diagrams. Both scalar and vector correlators are shown to be given in terms of Mellin amplitudes. We apply the procedure to the explicit calculation of three-, four- and five-point correlators.
We derive new crossing-symmetric dispersion formulae for CFT correlators restricted to the line. The formulae are equivalent to the sum rules implied by what we call master functionals, which are analytic extremal functionals which act on the crossing equation. The dispersion relations provide an equivalent formulation of the constraints of the Polyakov bootstrap and hence of crossing symmetry on the line. The built in positivity properties imply simple and exact lower and upper bounds on the values of general CFT correlators on the Euclidean section, which are saturated by generalized free fi…
We study an anisotropic scale transformation in the worldsheet description of D3-branes in Type IIB theory, and show that the transformation is really a symmetry in a region near D3-branes. AdS/CFT correspondence follows from this symmetry. We will explicitly show that Wilson loops in N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory and minimal surfaces in AdS_5 are related by the symmetry. The functional form of a supersymmetric Wilson loop operator is naturally derived from our worldsheet point of view.
Prompted by the recent developments in integrable single trace $T \bar{T}$ and $J \bar{T}$ deformations of 2d CFTs, we analyse such deformations in the context of $AdS_3/CFT_2$ from the dual string worldsheet CFT viewpoint. We observe that the finite form of these deformations can be recast as $O(d,d)$ transformations, which are an integrated form of the corresponding Exactly Marginal Deformations (EMD) in the worldsheet Wess-Zumino-Witten (WZW) model, thereby generalising the Yang-Baxter class that includes TsT. Furthermore, the equivalence between $O(d,d)$ transformations and marginal deform…
We discuss the case of correlators in CFT made of pure contact terms, without a corresponding bare part. We show two examples. The first is provided by the conformal limits of a free massive fermion theory in 3d. We show that the (conserved) current correlators are in one-to-one correspondence with the terms of the 3d gauge CS action. The second is the Pontryagin trace anomaly. The corresponding 3-point correlator is nonvanishing even though the corresponding untraced correlator vanishes.
Conformal field theory (CFT) dispersion relations reconstruct correlators in terms of their double discontinuity. When applied to the crossing equation, such dispersive transforms lead to sum rules that suppress the double-twist sector of the spectrum and enjoy positivity properties at large twist. In this paper, we construct dispersive CFT functionals for correlators of unequal scalar operators in position- and Mellin-space. We then evaluate these functionals in the Regge limit to construct mixed correlator holographic CFT functionals which probe scalar particle scattering in Anti-de Sitter s…
We extend the analysis of Alday and Maldacena for obtaining gluon scattering amplitudes at strong coupling to include external massive quark states. Our quarks are actually the N=2 hypermultiplets which arise when D7-brane probes are included in the AdS_5 x S^5 geometry. We work in the quenched approximation, treating the N=2 matter multiplets as external sources coupled to the N=4 SYM fields. We first derive appropriate massive-particle boundary conditions for the string scattering worldsheets. We then find an exact worldsheet which corresponds to the scattering of two massive quarks and two …
We show that general parity-violating 3d conformal field theories show a double copy structure for momentum space 3-point functions of conserved currents, stress tensor and marginal scalar operators. Splitting up the CFT correlator into two parts - called homogeneous and non-homogeneous - we show that double copy relations exist for each part separately. We arrive at similar conclusions regarding double copy structures using tree-level correlators of massless fields in $dS_4$. We also discuss the flat space limit of these correlators. We further extend the double copy analysis to correlators i…
We study real-time correlators in the Kerr/CFT correspondence. The near-horizon geometry of extreme and near-extremal Kerr black holes can be taken as warped spacetimes with the warping factors depending on the transverse radius and the angular variable. By considering the Kerr/CFT correspondence as a generalized warped AdS/CFT correspondence, we show how to compute the CFT real-time correlation functions. We find that the retarded Green's functions, the cross sections and the quasi-normal modes are all in perfect match with the predictions of the dual CFT. The same analysis is also generalize…
We compute the operator product expansions of gluons and gravitons in celestial CFT from the worldsheet OPE of vertex operators of four-dimensional ambitwistor string theories. Remarkably, the worldsheet OPE localizes on the short-distance singularity between vertex operator insertions which in turn coincides with the OPE limit of operator insertions on the celestial sphere. The worldsheet CFT dynamically produces known celestial OPE coefficients -- as well as infinite towers of SL$(2,\mathbb{R})$ descendant contributions to the celestial OPE -- without any truncations or approximations. We ob…
We extend to chiral N=4 operators the holographic agreement recently found between correlators of the symmetric orbifold of M^4 at large N and type IIB strings propagating in AdS(3) x S^3 x M^4, where M^4=T^4 or K3. We also present expressions for some bulk correlators not yet computed in the boundary.
N-point correlation functions of conserved currents and weight-two scalar operators of the three-dimensional free fermion vector model are found as invariants of the higher-spin symmetry in four-dimensional AdS. These are the correlators of the unbroken Vasiliev higher-spin theory. The results extend the recent work arXiv:1210.7963 and are complementary to arXiv:1301.3123 where the correlators were computed entirely on the boundary.
We show that next-to-extremal correlators of chiral primary operators in N=4 SYM theory do not receive quantum corrections to first order in perturbation theory. Furthermore we consider next-to-extremal correlators within AdS supergravity. Here the exchange diagrams contributing to these correlators yield results of the same free-field form as obtained within field theory. This suggests that quantum corrections vanish at strong coupling as well.
We show that the scaling dimensions of lowest operators in conformal field theories (CFTs) can be isolated in small and closed regions from single correlator bootstrap. We find the conserved currents play crucial roles in bootstrapping the crossing equation. By imposing a mild gap between the scaling dimensions of the conserved current and its next operator, the scaling dimensions of lowest operators are forced to lie in small isolated regions, i.e., these CFTs can be almost fixed by few lowest operators in certain channels. For CFTs with extended supersymmetry, the single correlator crossing …
The AdS/CFT correspondence predicts a phase transition in Wilson loop correlators in the strong coupling N=4, D=4 SYM theory which arises due to instability of the classical string stretched between the loops. We study this transition in detail by solving equations of motion for the string in the particular case of two circular Wilson loops. The transition is argued to be smoothened at finite `t Hooft coupling by fluctuations of the string world sheet and to be promoted to a sharp crossover. Some general comments about Wilson loop correlators in gauge theories are made.
We study the two circular Wilson loop correlator in which one is of anti-symmetric representation, while the other is of fundamental representation in 4-dimensional ${\cal N}=4$ super Yang-Mills theory. This correlator has a good AdS dual, which is a system of a D5-brane and a fundamental string. We calculated the on-shell action of the string, and clarified the Gross-Ooguri transition in this correlator. Some limiting cases are also examined.
Two-dimensional conformal field theories at large central charge and with a sufficiently sparse spectrum of light states have been shown to exhibit universal thermodynamics. This thermodynamics matches that of AdS$_3$ gravity, with a Hawking-Page transition between thermal AdS and the BTZ black hole. We extend these results to correlation functions of light operators. Upon making some additional assumptions, such as large $c$ factorization of correlators, we establish that the thermal AdS and BTZ solutions emerge as the universal backgrounds for the computation of correlators. In particular, W…
By solving the equations of motion of massive $p$-form potential in Anti-de-Sitter space and using the $AdS/CFT$ correspondence of Maldacena, the generating functional of two-point correlation functions of the currents is obtained. When the mass parameter vanishes the result agrees with the known massless case.
We continue our study of string correlators on Euclidean $\text{AdS}_3$ with pure NS-NS flux. The worldsheet and spacetime correlators have a rich analytic structure, which we analyse completely for genus 0 four-point functions. We show that correlators exhibit a simple behaviour near their singularities. The spacetime correlators are meromorphic functions in the $\mathrm{SL}(2,\mathbb{R})$-spins, whose pole structure is shown to agree with the prediction of a recent proposal for the dual $\text{CFT}_2$. Moreover, we also compute the residues of the spacetime correlators for some of the poles …
We consider general 2D orbifold CFTs of the form M^N/S_N, with M a target space manifold and S_N the symmetric group, and generalize the Lunin-Mathur covering space technique in two ways. First, we consider excitations of twist operators by modes of fields that are not twisted by that operator, and show how to account for these excitations when computing correlation functions in the covering space. Second, we consider non-twist sector operators and show how to include the effects of these insertions in the covering space. We work two examples, one using a simple bosonic CFT, and one using the …
Recently exact agreement has been found between three-point correlators of chiral operators computed in string theory on AdS_3 x S^3 x T^4 with NS-NS flux and those computed in the symmetric orbifold CFT. However, it has also been shown that these correlators disagree with those computed in supergravity, under any identification of single particle operators which respects the symmetries. In this note we resolve this disagreement: the key point is that mixings with multi-particle operators are not suppressed even at large N in extremal correlators. Allowing for such mixings, orbifold/string the…
Singularities of Spin(7) manifolds are considered in the worldsheet approach, and it is argued that the internal CFT describing a singular spin(7) has an enhanced ${\cal SW}({3\over 2},{3\over 2},2)$ algebra tensored with ${\cal N}=1$ linear dilaton CFT, much like singular Calabi-Yau CFTs have a ${\cal N}=2$ linear dilaton tensored with a suitable ${\cal N}=2$ SCFT. Upon adding fundamental strings, these vacua are related to $AdS_3$ vacua with ${\cal N}=1$ supersymmetry, completing the worldsheet classification of $AdS_3$ vacua with NS flux.
We consider current-current correlators in 4d $\N =1$ SCFTs, and also 3d $\N =2$ SCFTs, in connection with AdS/CFT geometry. The superconformal $U(1)_R$ symmetry of the SCFT has the distinguishing property that, among all possibilities, it minimizes the coefficient, $τ_{RR}$ of its two-point function. We show that the geometric Z-minimization condition of Martelli, Sparks, and Yau precisely implements $τ_{RR}$ minimization. This gives a physical proof that Z-minimization in geometry indeed correctly determines the superconformal R-charges of the field theory dual. We further discuss and compar…
In this paper, we study the real-time correlators in Kerr/CFT, in the low frequency limit of generic non-extremal Kerr(-Newman) black holes. From the low frequency scattering of Kerr-Newman black holes, we show that for the uncharged scalar scattering, there exists hidden conformal symmetry on the solution space. Similar to Kerr case, this suggests that the Kerr-Newman black hole is dual to a two-dimensional CFT with central charges $c_L=c_R=12J$ and temperatures $T_L=\frac{(r_++r_-)-Q^2/M}{4πa}, T_R=\frac{r_+-r_-}{4πa}$. Using the Minkowski prescription, we compute the real-time correlators o…
A previous calculation of the phase transition in the Wilson loop correlator in the zero temperature AdS/CFT correspondence is extended to the case where the loops are concentric circles of unequal radii. This phase transition occurs due to the instability of the classical string stretched between the loops. We compute the string action and its expansion in the distance h between the loops for small h. We also find that the connected minimal surface is subleading or does not even exist when h=0 and the radii are considerably different. This feature has no analogue in flat space.
We compute three-point correlation functions in the near-extremal, near-horizon region of a Kerr black hole, and compare to the corresponding finite-temperature conformal field theory correlators. For simplicity, we focus on scalar fields dual to operators ${\cal O}_h$ whose conformal dimensions obey $h_3=h_1+h_2$, which we name \emph{extremal} in analogy with the classic $AdS_5 \times S^5$ three-point function in the literature. For such extremal correlators we find perfect agreement with the conformal field theory side, provided that the coupling of the cubic interaction contains a vanishing…
We calculate, for the first time, three-point correlation functions involving "heavy" operators in the Schrodinger/null-dipole CFT correspondence at strong coupling. In particular, we focus on the three-point functions of the dilaton modes and two "heavy" operators. The heavy states are dual to the single spin and dyonic magnon, the single spin and dyonic spike solutions or to two novel string solutions which do not have an undeformed counterpart. Our results provide the leading term of the correlators in the large $λ$ expansion and are in perfect agreement with the form of the correlator dict…
