The genus zero contribution to the four-point correlator $\langle {\cal O}_{p_1}{\cal O}_{p_2}{\cal O}_{p_3}{\cal O}_{p_4}\rangle$ of half-BPS single-particle operators ${\cal O}_p$ in $\mathcal{N}=4$ super Yang-Mills at strong coupling computes the Virasoro-Shapiro amplitude of closed superstrings on $AdS_5\times S^5$. Combining Mellin space techniques, the large $p$ limit, and data about the spectrum of two-particle operators at tree level in supergravity, we design a bootstrap algorithm which heavily constrains its $α'$ expansion. We use crossing symmetry, polynomiality in the Mellin variables and the large $p$ limit to stratify the Virasoro-Shapiro amplitude away from the ten-dimensional flat space limit. Then we analyse the spectrum of exchanged two-particle operators at fixed order in the $α'$ expansion. We impose that the ten-dimensional spin of the spectrum visible at that order is bounded above in the same way as in the flat space amplitude. This constraint determines the Virasoro-Shapiro amplitude in $AdS_5\times S^5$ up to a small number of ambiguities at each order and we compute it explicitly for $(α')^{5,6,7,8,9}$. As the order of $α'$ grows, the ten dimensional spin grows, and the set of visible two-particle operators opens up. Operators illuminated for the first time receive a string correction to their anomalous dimensions. This correction is uniquely determined and lifts the residual degeneracy of tree level supergravity due to ten-dimensional conformal symmetry. We encode the lifting of the residual degeneracy in a characteristic polynomial. This object carries information about all orders in $α'$.It is analytic in the quantum numbers, symmetric under an $AdS_5 \leftrightarrow S^5$ exchange, and it enjoys intriguing properties, which we explain and detail in various cases.
A Dispersive Bootstrap for the Virasoro-Shapiro Amplitude
School of Fundamental Physics and Mathematical Sciences, Hangzhou Institute for Advanced Study, UCAS（杭州高等研究院基础物理与数学学院，UCAS）；Institute of Theoretical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院理论物理研究所）；University of Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院大学）
We propose a systematic procedure for obtaining all single trace 1/2-BPS correlators in N=4 super Yang-Mills corresponding to the four-point tree-level amplitude for type IIB string theory in AdS5xS5. The underlying idea is to compute generalised contact Witten diagrams coming from a 10d effective field theory on AdS5xS5 whose coefficients are fixed by the flat space Virasoro-Shapiro amplitude up to ambiguities related to commutators of the 10d covariant derivatives which require additional information such as localisation. We illustrate this procedure by computing stringy corrections to the s…
We consider the four-point correlator of the stress-energy tensor in ${\cal N}=4$ SYM, to leading order in inverse powers of the central charge, but including all order corrections in $1/λ$. This corresponds to the AdS version of the Virasoro-Shapiro amplitude to all orders in the small $α'$/low energy expansion. Using dispersion relations in Mellin space, we derive an infinite set of sum rules. These sum rules strongly constrain the form of the amplitude, and determine all coefficients in the low energy expansion in terms of the CFT data for heavy string operators, in principle available from…
Using the QCD dipole picture of BFKL dynamics and the conformal invariance properties of the BFKL kernel in transverse coordinate space, we show that the 1--to--p dipole densities can be expressed in terms of dual Shapiro- Virasoro amplitudes B{2p+2} and their generalization including non-zero conformal spins. We discuss the possibility of an effective closed string theory of interacting QCD dipoles.
D1-D5 CFT data from $AdS_3 \times S^3$ Virasoro-Shapiro amplitude
Center for Mathematics and Interdisciplinary Sciences, Fudan University（复旦大学数学与交叉科学研究院）；Shanghai Institute for Mathematics and Interdisciplinary Sciences (SIMIS)（上海数学与交叉科学研究院）
We consider travelling waves propagating on the anti-de Sitter (AdS) background. It is pointed out that for any dimension d, this space of solutions has a Virasoro symmetry with a non-zero central charge. This result is a natural generalization to higher dimensions of the three-dimensional Brown-Henneaux symmetry.
We study three-dimensional consistent truncations of type IIB supergravity which admit warped AdS$_3$ solutions. These theories contain subsectors that have no bulk dynamics. We show that the symplectic form for these theories, when restricted to the non-dynamical subsectors, equals the symplectic form for pure Einstein gravity in AdS$_3$. Consequently, for each consistent choice of boundary conditions in AdS$_3$, we can define a consistent phase space in warped AdS$_3$ with identical conserved charges. This way, we easily obtain a Virasoro $\times$ Virasoro asymptotic symmetry algebra in warp…
We study bosonic string theory in the light-cone gauge on AdS_3 spacetime with zero radius of curvature (in string units) R/\sqrt{α^\prime}=0. We find that the worldsheet theory admits an infinite number of conserved quantities which are naturally interpreted as spacetime charges and which form a representation of (two commuting copies of) a Virasoro algebra. Near the boundary of AdS_3 these charges are found to be isomorphic to the infinite set of asymptotic Killing vectors of AdS_3 found originally by Brown and Henneaux. In addition to the spacetime Virasoro algebra, there is a worldsheet Vi…
We present a unified framework for the holographic computation of Virasoro conformal blocks at large central charge. In particular, we provide bulk constructions that correctly reproduce all semiclassical Virasoro blocks that are known explicitly from conformal field theory computations. The results revolve around the use of geodesic Witten diagrams, recently introduced in arXiv:1508.00501, evaluated in locally AdS$_3$ geometries generated by backreaction of heavy operators. We also provide an alternative computation of the heavy-light semiclassical block -- in which two external operators bec…
In double field theory, motivated by its field theoretic consistency, the level matching condition is generalized to the so-called strong constraint. In this note, it is investigated what the two-dimensional conformal field theory origin of this constraint is. Initially treating the left- and right-movers as independent, we compute the torus partition function as well as a generalized Virasoro-Shapiro amplitude. In non-compact directions the strong constraint arises from the factorization of the Virasoro-Shapiro amplitude over physical states as determined by the modular invariant partition fu…
We consider the enhancement of SL(2,R) to Virasoro algebra in a system of N particles on AdS2. We restrict our discussion to the case of non-interacting particles, and argue that they must be treated as fermions. We find operators L_n whose commutators on the ground state, |vac>, satisfy relations that are reminisent of c=1 Virasoro algebra, provided N \geq n \geq -N. Same relations hold also on the states L_{-k}|vac>, if (N-k) \geq n \geq -(N-k). The conditions L_n^†= L_{-n}, and L_k|vac> = 0 for k \geq 1 are also satisfied.
It was shown by Brown and Henneaux that the classical theory of gravity on AdS_3 has an infinite-dimensional symmetry group forming a Virasoro algebra. More recently, Giveon, Kutasov and Seiberg (GKS) constructed the corresponding Virasoro generators in the first-quantized string theory on AdS_3. In this paper, we explore various aspects of string theory on AdS_3 and study the relation between these two works. We show how semi-classical properties of the string theory reproduce many features of the AdS/CFT duality. Furthermore, we examine how the Virasoro symmetry of Brown and Henneaux is real…
We investigate aspects of holographic duals to time-like warped AdS_3 space-times--which include Gödel's universe--in string theory. Using worldsheet techniques similar to those that have been applied to AdS_3 backgrounds, we are able to identify space-time symmetry algebras that act on the dual boundary theory. In particular, we always find at least one Virasoro algebra with computable central charge. Interestingly, there exists a dense set of points in the moduli space of these models in which there is actually a second commuting Virasoro algebra, typically with different central charge than…
We analyse the canonical structure of AdS_3 gravity in terms of the coadjoint orbits of the Virasoro group. There is one subset of orbits, associated to BTZ black hole solutions, that can be described by a pair of chiral free fields with a background charge. There is also a second subset of orbits, associated to point-particle solutions, that are described by two pairs of chiral free fields obeying a constraint. All these orbits admit Kähler quantization and generate a Hilbert space which, despite of having $Δ_0(\barΔ_0)=0$, does not provide the right degeneracy to account for the Bekenstein-H…
We demonstrate that under certain conditions a theory of conformal quantum mechanics will exhibit the symmetries of two half-Virasoro algebras. We further demonstrate the conditions under which these algebras combine to form a single Virasoro algebra, and comment on the connection between this result and the AdS/CFT correspondence.
We construct, to second order, the effective action of General Relativity for small excitations generated by a vector field and use it to study conformal symmetry in the boundary of AdS$_3$. By requiring finiteness of the boundary effective action(s) for certain asymptotic transformations, we derive the well-known Virasoro algebra and central charge associated with the boundary of AdS$_3$. The bulk action for these transformations can be arbitrarily small.
We demonstrate that any scale-invariant mechanics of one variable exhibits not only 0+1 conformal symmetry, but also the symmetries of a full Virasoro algebra. We discuss the implications for the adS/CFT correspondence.
Aspects of black hole thermodynamics and information loss can be derived as a consequence of Virasoro symmetry. To bolster the connection between Virasoro conformal blocks and AdS$_3$ quantum gravity, we study sl$(2)$ Chern-Simons Wilson line networks and revisit the idea that they compute a variety of CFT$_2$ observables, including Virasoro OPE blocks, exactly. We verify this in the semiclassical large central charge limit and to low orders in a perturbative $1/c$ expansion. Wilson lines connecting the boundary to points in the bulk play a natural role in bulk reconstruction. Because quantum …
The boundary charges which constitute the Virasoro algebra in 2+1 dimensional anti-de Sitter gravity are derived by way of Noether theorem and diffeomorphic invariance. It shows that the boundary charges under discussion recently exhaust all the independent nontrivial charges available. Therefore, the state counting via the Virasoro algebra is complete.
We study the asymptotic symmetries of three-dimensional Warped Anti-de Sitter (WAdS) spaces in three-dimensional New Massive Gravity (NMG). For a specific choice of asymptotic boundary conditions, we find that the algebra of charges is infinite-dimensional and coincides with the semidirect sum of Virasoro algebra with non-vanishing central charge and an affine $\hat{u}(1)_k$ Kač-Moody algebra. We show that the WAdS black hole configurations organize in terms of two commuting Virasoro algebras. We identify the Virasoro generators that expand the associated representations in the dual Warped Con…
We continue to investigate the dual description of the Virasoro conformal blocks arising in the framework of the classical limit of the AdS$_3$/CFT$_2$ correspondence. To give such an interpretation in previous studies, certain restrictions were necessary. Our goal here is to consider more general situation available through the worldline approximation to the dual AdS gravity. Namely, we are interested in computing the spherical conformal blocks without the previously imposed restrictions on the conformal dimensions of the internal channels. The duality is realised as an equality of the so-cal…
We analyze the asymptotic symmetries of near extremal Kerr black holes in four dimensions using the AdS_2/CFT_1 correspondence. We find a Virasoro algebra with central charge c_R=12J that is independent from the Virasoro algebra (with the same central charge) that acts on the degenerate ground state. The energy of the excitations is computed as well, and we can use Cardy's formula to determine the near extremal entropy. Our result is consistent with the Bekenstein-Hawking area law for near extremal Kerr black holes.
Recent work has demonstrated that black hole thermodynamics and information loss/restoration in AdS$_3$/CFT$_2$ can be derived almost entirely from the behavior of the Virasoro conformal blocks at large central charge, with relatively little dependence on the precise details of the CFT spectrum or OPE coefficients. Here, we elaborate on the non-perturbative behavior of Virasoro blocks by classifying all `saddles' that can contribute for arbitrary values of external and internal operator dimensions in the semiclassical large central charge limit. The leading saddles, which determine the naive s…
We show that the recently proposed free boundary conditions for AdS$_3$ are dual to two-dimensional quantum gravity in certain fixed gauges. In particular, we note that an appropriate identification of the generator of Virasoro transformations leads to a vanishing total central charge in agreement with the theory at the boundary. We argue that this identification is necessary to match the bulk and boundary generators of Virasoro transformations and for consistency with the constraint equations.
The set of solutions to the AdS$_3$ Einstein gravity with Brown-Henneaux boundary conditions is known to be a family of metrics labeled by two arbitrary periodic functions, respectively left and right-moving. It turns out that there exists an appropriate presymplectic form which vanishes on-shell. This promotes this set of metrics to a phase space in which the Brown-Henneaux asymptotic symmetries become symplectic symmetries in the bulk of spacetime. Moreover, any element in the phase space admits two global Killing vectors. We show that the conserved charges associated with these Killing vect…
We present the asymptotic analysis of 3D conformal gravity as a SO(3,2) Chern-Simons gauge theory with Minkowskian (flat) and AdS boundary conditions. We further extend these boundary conditions to the case where the Weyl mode and the partial massless mode are allowed to fluctuate. The latter leads to loosing one copy of the Virasoro algebra and the former to a u(1) current extension of the asymptotic symmetry algebra and shifting the Virasoro central charge by one. We also give a pedagogical canonical and asymptotic analysis of 3D pure gravity as an ISO(2,1) Chern-Simons gauge theory with fla…
We compute 5-point classical conformal blocks with two heavy, two light, and one superlight operator using the monodromy approach up to third order in the superlight expansion. By virtue of the AdS/CFT correspondence we show the equivalence of the resulting expressions to those obtained in the bulk computation for the corresponding geodesic configuration.
AdS2 has an SL(2,R) isometry group. It is argued that in the context of quantum gravity on AdS2 this group is enlarged to the full infinite-dimensional 1+1 conformal group. Massive scalar fields are coupled to AdS2 gravity and shown to have associated conformal weights h(m) shifted by their mass. For integral values of h primary boundary operators are obtained as h normal derivatives of the scalar field. AdS2 string theories arise in the `very-near-horizon' limit of S1-compactified AdS3 string theories. This limit corresponds to energies far below the compactification scale. The dual conformal…
It will be shown analytically that the light sector of the identity block of a mixed heavy-light correlator in the large central charge limit is given by a correlation function of light operators on an effective background geometry. This geometry is generated by the presence of the heavy operators. It is shown that this background geometry is a solution to the Liouville equation of motion sourced by corresponding heavy vertex operators and subsequently that the light sector of the identity block matches the Liouville correlation function in the semi-classical limit. This method effectively cap…
One can obtain exact information about Virasoro conformal blocks by analytically continuing the correlators of degenerate operators. We argued in recent work that this technique can be used to explicitly resolve information loss problems in AdS$_3$/CFT$_2$. In this paper we use the technique to perform calculations in the small $1/c \propto G_N$ expansion: (1) we prove the all-orders resummation of logarithmic factors $\propto \frac{1}{c} \log z$ in the Lorentzian regime, demonstrating that $1/c$ corrections directly shift Lyapunov exponents associated with chaos, as claimed in prior work, (2)…
The Virasoro algebra determines all `graviton' matrix elements in AdS$_3$/CFT$_2$. We study the explicit exchange of any number of Virasoro gravitons between heavy and light CFT$_2$ operators at large central charge. These graviton exchanges can be written in terms of new on-shell tree diagrams, organized in a perturbative expansion in $h_H/c$, the heavy operator dimension divided by the central charge. The Virasoro vacuum conformal block, which is the sum of all the tree diagrams, obeys a differential recursion relation generalizing that of the Catalan numbers. We use this recursion relation …
We begin by explicating a recent proof of the cluster decomposition principle in AdS_{d+1} from the CFT_d bootstrap in d > 2. The CFT argument also computes the leading interactions between distant objects in AdS, and we confirm the universal agreement between the CFT bootstrap and AdS gravity in the semi-classical limit. We proceed to study the generalization to 2d CFTs, which requires knowledge of the Virasoro conformal blocks in a lightcone OPE limit. We compute these blocks in a semiclassical, large central charge approximation, and use them to prove a suitably modified theorem. In particu…
Black hole microstates and their approximate thermodynamic properties can be studied using heavy-light correlation functions in AdS/CFT. Universal features of these correlators can be extracted from the Virasoro conformal blocks in CFT2, which encapsulate quantum gravitational effects in AdS3. At infinite central charge c, the Virasoro vacuum block provides an avatar of the black hole information paradox in the form of periodic Euclidean-time singularities that must be resolved at finite c. We compute Virasoro blocks in the heavy-light, large c limit, extending our previous results by determin…
We investigate the near-horizon limit of extremally rotating NS5-branes. The resulting geometry has SL(2,R) \times U(1)^2 isometry. The asymptotic symmetry group contains a chiral Virasoro algebra, and we obtain two different realizations depending on the boundary conditions we impose. When one of the two angular momenta vanishes, the symmetry is enhanced to AdS_3. The entropy of the boundary theory can be estimated from the Cardy formula and it agrees with the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy of the bulk theory. We can embed the extremally rotating NS5-brane geometry in an exactly solvable string b…
We consider the conformal $A_{n}$ Toda theory in AdS$_{2}$. Due to the bulk full Virasoro symmetry, this system provides an instance of a non-gravitational $\text{AdS}_{2}$/$\text{CFT}_{1}$ correspondence where the 1d boundary theory enjoys enhanced "$\frac{1}{2}$-Virasoro" symmetry. General boundary correlators are expected to be captured by the restriction of chiral correlators in a suitable $\mathcal WA_{n}$ Virasoro extension. At next-to-leading order in weak coupling expansion they have been conjectured to match the subleading terms in the large central charge expansion of the dual $\math…
It is known that string theory on $AdS_3\times M_7$ backgrounds preserving 16 supercharges is classically integrable. This integrability has been previously used to write down a set of integral equations, known as the finite-gap equations. These equations can be solved for the closed string spectrum of the theory. However, it has been known for some time that the $AdS_3\times M_7$ finite-gap equations do not capture the dynamics of the massless modes of the closed string theory. In this paper we re-examine the derivation of the $AdS_3\times M_7$ finite-gap system. We find that the conditions t…
We revisit the construction of multi-centered solutions in three-dimensional anti-de Sitter gravity in the light of the recently discovered connection between particle worldlines and classical Virasoro conformal blocks. We focus on multi-centered solutions which represent the backreaction of point masses moving on helical geodesics in global AdS$_3$, and argue that their construction reduces to a problem in Liouville theory on the disk with Zamolodchikov-Zamolodchikov boundary condition. In order to construct the solution one needs to solve a certain monodromy problem which we argue is solved …
Using the {\it off-shell} Noether current and potential we compute the entropy for the AdS black holes in new massive gravity. For the non-extremal BTZ black holes by implementing the so-called stretched horizon approach we reproduce the correct expression for the horizon entropy. For the extremal case, we adopt standard formalism in the AdS/CFT correspondence and reproduce the corresponding entropy by computing the central extension term on the asymptotic boundary of the near horizon geometry. We explicitly show the invariance of the angular momentum along the radial direction for extremal as…
We consider the semiclassical limit of the vacuum Virasoro block describing the diagonal 4-point correlation functions on the sphere. At large central charge c, after exponentiation, it depends on two fixed ratios h_H/c and h_L/c, where h_{H, L} are the conformal dimensions of the 4-point function operators. The semiclassical block may be expanded in powers of the light ratio h_L/c and the leading non-trivial (linear) order is known in closed form as a function of h_H/c. Recently, this contribution has been matched against AdS_3 gravity calculations where heavy operators build up a classical g…
Every conformal field theory (CFT) above two dimensions contains an infinite set of Regge trajectories of local operators which, at large spin, asymptote to "double-twist" composites with vanishing anomalous dimension. In two dimensions, due to the existence of local conformal symmetry, this and other central results of the conformal bootstrap do not apply. We incorporate exact stress tensor dynamics into the CFT$_2$ analytic bootstrap, and extract several implications for AdS$_3$ quantum gravity. Our main tool is the Virasoro fusion kernel, which we newly analyze and interpret in the bootstra…
In light of recent developments in nearly AdS$_2$ holography, we revisit the semi-classical version of two-dimensional dilaton gravity proposed by Callan, Giddings, Harvey, and Strominger (CGHS) in the early 90's. In distinction to the classical model, the quantum corrected CGHS model has an AdS$_2$ vacuum with a constant dilaton. By turning on a non-normalizable mode of the Liouville field, i.e. the conformal mode of the $2d$ gravity, the explicit breaking of the scale invariance renders the AdS$_2$ vacuum nearly AdS$_2$. As a consequence, there emerges an effective one-dimensional Schwarzian…
We compute the full asymptotic symmetry group of black holes belonging to the same equivalence class of solutions within the Conformal Weyl Gravity formalism. We do this within an $AdS_2/CFT_1$ correspondence and by performing a Robinson-Wilczek two dimensional reduction, thus enabling the construction of an effective quantum theory of the remaining field content. The resulting energy momentum tensors generate asymptotic Virasoro algebras, to $s$-wave, with calculable central extensions. These centers in conjunction with their proper regularized lowest Virasoro eigen-modes yield the Bekenstein…
