Showing papers on "AdS/CFT correspondence published in 2020"

Transcending the ensemble: baby universes, spacetime wormholes, and the order and disorder of black hole information

Abstract: In the 1980’s, work by Coleman and by Giddings and Strominger linked the physics of spacetime wormholes to ‘baby universes’ and an ensemble of theories. We revisit such ideas, using features associated with a negative cosmological constant and asymptotically AdS boundaries to strengthen the results, introduce a change in perspective, and connect with recent replica wormhole discussions of the Page curve. A key new feature is an emphasis on the role of null states. We explore this structure in detail in simple topological models of the bulk that allow us to compute the full spectrum of associated boundary theories. The dimension of the asymptotically AdS Hilbert space turns out to become a random variable Z , whose value can be less than the naive number k of independent states in the theory. For k > Z , consistency arises from an exact degeneracy in the inner product defined by the gravitational path integral, so that many a priori independent states differ only by a null state. We argue that a similar property must hold in any consistent gravitational path integral. We also comment on other aspects of extrapolations to more complicated models, and on possible implications for the black hole information problem in the individual members of the above ensemble.

Quantum extremal islands made easy. Part II. Black holes on the brane

Abstract: We discuss holographic models of extremal and non-extremal black holes in contact with a bath in d dimensions, based on a brane world model introduced in [1]. The main benefit of our setup is that it allows for a high degree of analytic control as compared to previous work in higher dimensions. We show that the appearance of quantum extremal islands in those models is a consequence of the well-understood phase transition of RT surfaces, and does not make any direct reference to ensemble averaging. For non-extremal black holes the appearance of quantum extremal islands has the right behaviour to avoid the information paradox in any dimension. We further show that for these models the calculation of the full Page curve is possible in any dimension. The calculation reduces to numerically solving two ODEs. In the case of extremal black holes in higher dimensions, we find no quantum extremal islands for a wide range of parameters. In two dimensions, our results agree with [2] at leading order; however a finite UV cutoff introduced by the brane results in subleading corrections. For example, these corrections result in the quantum extremal surfaces moving further outward from the horizon, and shifting the Page transition to a slightly earlier time.

Quantum Extremal Islands Made Easy, Part I: Entanglement on the Brane

Abstract: Recent progress in our understanding of the black hole information paradox has lead to a new prescription for calculating entanglement entropies, which involves special subsystems in regions where gravity is dynamical, called quantum extremal islands. We present a simple holographic framework where the emergence of quantum extremal islands can be understood in terms of the standard Ryu-Takayanagi prescription, used for calculating entanglement entropies in the boundary theory. Our setup describes a d-dimensional boundary CFT coupled to a (d−1)-dimensional defect, which are dual to global AdSd+1 containing a codimension-one brane. Through the Randall-Sundrum mechanism, graviton modes become localized at the brane, and in a certain parameter regime, an effective description of the brane is given by Einstein gravity on an AdSd background coupled to two copies of the boundary CFT. Within this effective description, the standard RT formula implies the existence of quantum extremal islands in the gravitating region, whenever the RT surface crosses the brane. This indicates that islands are a universal feature of effective theories of gravity and need not be tied to the presence of black holes.

Information radiation in BCFT models of black holes

Abstract: In this note, following [1–3], we introduce and study various holographic systems which can describe evaporating black holes. The systems we consider are boundary conformal field theories for which the number of local degrees of freedom on the boundary (c$_{bdy}$) is large compared to the number of local degrees of freedom in the bulk CFT (c$_{bulk}$). We consider states where the boundary degrees of freedom on their own would describe an equilibrium black hole, but the coupling to the bulk CFT degrees of freedom allows this black hole to evaporate. The Page time for the black hole is controlled by the ratio c$_{bdy}$/c$_{bulk}$. Using both holographic calculations and direct CFT calculations, we study the evolution of the entanglement entropy for the subset of the radiation system (i.e. the bulk CFT) at a distance d > a from the boundary. We find that the entanglement entropy for this subsystem increases until time a + t$_{Page}$ and then undergoes a phase transition after which the entanglement wedge of the radiation system includes the black hole interior. Remarkably, this occurs even if the radiation system is initially at the same temperature as the black hole so that the two are in thermal equilibrium. In this case, even though the black hole does not lose energy, it “radiates” information through interaction with the radiation system until the radiation system contains enough information to reconstruct the black hole interior.

Page curve for an evaporating black hole

Abstract: A Page curve for an evaporating black hole in asymptotically flat spacetime is computed by adapting the Quantum Ryu-Takayanagi (QRT) proposal to an analytically solvable semi-classical two-dimensional dilaton gravity theory. The Page time is found to be one third of the black hole lifetime, at leading order in semi-classical corrections. A Page curve is also obtained for a semi-classical eternal black hole, where energy loss due to Hawking evaporation is balanced by an incoming energy flux.

Islands in cosmology

Abstract: A quantum extremal island suggests that a region of spacetime is encoded in the quantum state of another system, like the encoding of the black hole interior in Hawking radiation. We study conditions for islands to appear in general spacetimes, with or without black holes. They must violate Bekenstein’s area bound in a precise sense, and the boundary of an island must satisfy several other information-theoretic inequalities. These conditions combine to impose very strong restrictions, which we apply to cosmological models. We find several examples of islands in crunching universes. In particular, in the four-dimensional FRW cosmology with radiation and a negative cosmological constant, there is an island near the turning point when the geometry begins to recollapse. In a two-dimensional model of JT gravity in de Sitter spacetime, there are islands inside crunches that are encoded at future infinity or inside bubbles of Minkowski spacetime. Finally, we discuss simple tensor network toy models for islands in cosmology and black holes.

Bootstrapping inflationary correlators in Mellin space

Abstract: We develop a Mellin space approach to boundary correlation functions in anti-de Sitter (AdS) and de Sitter (dS) spaces. Using the Mellin-Barnes representation of correlators in Fourier space, we show that the analytic continuation between AdSd+1 and dSd+1 is encoded in a collection of simple relative phases. This allows us to determine the late-time tree-level three-point correlators of spinning fields in dSd+1 from known results for Witten diagrams in AdSd+1 by multiplication with a simple trigonometric factor. At four point level, we show that Conformal symmetry fixes exchange four-point functions both in AdSd+1 and dSd+1 in terms of the dual Conformal Partial Wave (which in Fourier space is a product of boundary three-point correlators) up to a factor which is determined by the boundary conditions. In this work we focus on late-time four-point correlators with external scalars and an exchanged field of integer spin-l. The Mellin-Barnes representation makes manifest the analytic structure of boundary correlation functions, providing an analytic expression for the exchange four-point function which is valid for general d and generic scaling dimensions, in particular massive, light and (partially-)massless fields. It moreover naturally identifies boundary correlation functions for generic fields with multi-variable Meijer-G functions. When d = 3 we reproduce existing explicit results available in the literature for external conformally coupled and massless scalars. From these results, assuming the weak breaking of the de Sitter isometries, we extract the corresponding correction to the inflationary three-point function of general external scalars induced by a general spin- l field at leading order in slow roll. These results provide a step towards a more systematic understanding of de Sitter observables at tree level and beyond using Mellin space methods.

Deriving the AdS3/CFT2 correspondence

Abstract: It was recently argued that string theory on AdS3 × S3 × 𝕋4 with one unit (k = 1) of NS-NS flux is exactly dual to the symmetric orbifold CFT SymN (𝕋4). In this paper we show how to directly relate the n-point correlators of the two sides to one another. In particular, we argue that the correlators of the world-sheet theory are delta-function- localised in string moduli space to those configurations that allow for a holomorphic covering map of the S2-boundary of AdS3 by the world-sheet. This striking feature can be seen both from a careful Ward identity analysis, as well as from semi-classically exact AdS3 solutions that are pinned to the boundary. The world-sheet correlators therefore have exactly the same structure as in the Lunin-Mathur construction of symmetric orbifold CFT correlators in terms of a covering surface — which now gets identified with the world-sheet. Together with the results of [1, 2] this essentially demonstrates how the k = 1 AdS3 string theory becomes equivalent to the spacetime orbifold CFT in the genus expansion.

The Factorization Problem in Jackiw-Teitelboim Gravity

Abstract: In this note we study the 1 + 1 dimensional Jackiw-Teitelboim gravity in Lorentzian signature, explicitly constructing the gauge-invariant classical phase space and the quantum Hilbert space and Hamiltonian. We also semiclassically compute the Hartle-Hawking wave function in two different bases of this Hilbert space. We then use these results to illustrate the gravitational version of the factorization problem of AdS/CFT: the Hilbert space of the two-boundary system tensor-factorizes on the CFT side, which appears to be in tension with the existence of gauge constraints in the bulk. In this model the tension is acute: we argue that JT gravity is a sensible quantum theory, based on a well-defined Lorentzian bulk path integral, which has no CFT dual. In bulk language, it has wormholes but it does not have black hole microstates. It does however give some hint as to what could be added to rectify these issues, and we give an example of how this works using the SYK model. Finally we suggest that similar comments should apply to pure Einstein gravity in 2 + 1 dimensions, which we’d then conclude also cannot have a CFT dual, consistent with the results of Maloney and Witten.

A Mellin space approach to cosmological correlators

Abstract: We propose a Mellin space approach to the evaluation of late-time momentum-space correlation functions of quantum fields in (d + 1)-dimensional de Sitter space. The Mellin-Barnes representation makes manifest the analytic structure of late-time correlators and, more generally, provides a convenient general d framework for the study of conformal correlators in momentum space. In this work we focus on tree-level correlation functions of general scalars as a prototype, including n-point contact diagrams and 4-point exchanges. For generic scalars, both the contact and exchange diagrams are given by (generalised) Hypergeometric functions, which reduce to existing expressions available in the literature for d = 3 and external scalars which are either simultaneously conformally coupled or massless. This approach can also be used for the perturbative bulk evaluation of momentum space boundary correlators in (d + 1)-dimensional anti-de Sitter space (Witten diagrams).

Averaging Over Narain Moduli Space

Abstract: Recent developments involving JT gravity in two dimensions indicate that under some conditions, a gravitational path integral is dual to an average over an ensemble of boundary theories, rather than to a specific boundary theory. For an example in one dimension more, one would like to compare a random ensemble of two-dimensional CFT’s to Einstein gravity in three dimensions. But this is difficult. For a simpler problem, here we average over Narain’s family of two-dimensional CFT’s obtained by toroidal compactification. These theories are believed to be the most general ones with their central charges and abelian current algebra symmetries, so averaging over them means picking a random CFT with those properties. The average can be computed using the Siegel-Weil formula of number theory and has some properties suggestive of a bulk dual theory that would be an exotic theory of gravity in three dimensions. The bulk dual theory would be more like U(1)2D Chern-Simons theory than like Einstein gravity.

Asymptotic symmetries and celestial CFT

Abstract: We provide a unified treatment of conformally soft Goldstone modes which arise when spin-one or spin-two conformal primary wavefunctions become pure gauge for certain integer values of the conformal dimension ∆. This effort lands us at the crossroads of two ongoing debates about what the appropriate conformal basis for celestial CFT is and what the asymptotic symmetry group of Einstein gravity at null infinity should be. Finite energy wavefunctions are captured by the principal continuous series ∆ ∈ 1 + iℝ and form a complete basis. We show that conformal primaries with analytically continued conformal dimension can be understood as certain contour integrals on the principal series. This clarifies how conformally soft Goldstone modes fit in but do not augment this basis. Conformally soft gravitons of dimension two and zero which are related by a shadow transform are shown to generate superrotations and non-meromorphic diffeomorphisms of the celestial sphere which we refer to as shadow superrotations. This dovetails the Virasoro and Diff(S2) asymptotic symmetry proposals and puts on equal footing the discussion of their associated soft charges, which correspond to the stress tensor and its shadow in the two-dimensional celestial CFT.

Notes on the complex Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model

Abstract: We describe numerous properties of the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model for complex fermions with N ≫ 1 flavors and a global U(1) charge. We provide a general definition of the charge in the (G, Σ) formalism, and compute its universal relation to the infrared asymmetry of the Green function. The same relation is obtained by a renormalization theory. The conserved charge contributes a compact scalar field to the effective action, from which we derive the many-body density of states and extract the charge compressibility. We compute the latter via three distinct numerical methods and obtain consistent results. Finally, we present a two dimensional bulk picture with free Dirac fermions for the zero temperature entropy.

Islands and Page Curves for Evaporating Black Holes in JT Gravity

Abstract: The effect of a CFT shockwave on the entanglement structure of an eternal black hole in Jackiw-Teitelboim gravity, that is in thermal equilibrium with a thermal bath, is considered. The shockwave carries energy and entropy into the black hole and heats the black hole up leading to evaporation and the eventual recovery of equilibrium. We find an analytical description of the entire relaxational process within the semiclassical high temperature regime. If the shockwave is inserted around the Page time then several scenarios are possible depending on the parameters. The Page time can be delayed or hastened and there can be more than one transition. The final entropy saddle has a quantum extremal surface that generically starts inside the horizon but at some later time moves outside. In general, increased shockwave energy and slow evaporation rate favour the extremal surface to be inside the horizon. The shockwave also disrupts the scrambling properties of the black hole. The same analysis is then applied to a shockwave inserted into the extremal black hole with similar conclusions.

Hamiltonian deformations in quantum mechanics, T T ¯ , and the SYK model

Abstract: Motivated by $T\overline{T}$, we introduce and study a wide class of solvable deformations of quantum-mechanical theories. These deformations map the Hamiltonian to a function of itself. We solve these theories by computing all finite-temperature correlation functions of the deformed theory in terms of the correlators of the undeformed theory. Applications to $\mathrm{AdS}/\mathrm{CFT}$, Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev, and the Schwarzian theory are considered. We write down the deformed Schwarzian action for an arbitrary Hamiltonian deformation and find that the maximal Lyapunov exponent is unchanged.

Replica wormhole and information retrieval in the SYK model coupled to Majorana chains

Abstract: Motivated by recent studies of the information paradox in (1+1)-D anti-de Sitter spacetime with a bath described by a (1+1)-D conformal field theory, we study the dynamics of second Ŕenyi entropy of the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) model (χ) coupled to a Majorana chain bath (ψ). The system is prepared in the thermofield double (TFD) state and then evolved by HL + HR. For small system-bath coupling, we find that the second Renyi entropy $$ {S}_{\upchi L,\upchi R}^{(2)} $$ of the SYK model undergoes a first order transition during the evolution. In the sense of holographic duality, the long-time solution corresponds to a “replica wormhole”. The transition time corresponds to the Page time of a black hole coupled to a thermal bath. We further study the information scrambling and retrieval by introducing a classical control bit, which controls whether or not we add a perturbation in the SYK system. The mutual information between the bath and the control bit shows a positive jump at the Page time, indicating that the entanglement wedge of the bath includes an island in the holographic bulk.

Simple holographic models of black hole evaporation

Abstract: Several recent papers have shown a close relationship between entanglement wedge reconstruction and the unitarity of black hole evaporation in AdS/CFT. The analysis of these papers however has a rather puzzling feature: all calculations are done using bulk dynamics which are essentially those Hawking used to predict information loss, but applying ideas from entanglement wedge reconstruction seems to suggest a Page curve which is consistent with information conservation. Why should two different calculations in the same model give different answers for the Page curve? In this note we present a new pair of models which clarify this situation. Our first model gives a holographic illustration of unitary black hole evaporation, in which the analogue of the Hawking radiation purifies itself as expected, and this purification is reproduced by the entanglement wedge analysis. Moreover a smooth black hole interior persists until the last stages the evaporation process. Our second model gives an alternative holographic interpretation of the situation where the bulk evolution leads to information loss: unlike in the models proposed so far, this bulk information loss is correctly reproduced by the entanglement wedge analysis. This serves as an illustration that quantum extremal surfaces are in some sense kinematic: the time-dependence of the entropy they compute depends on the choice of bulk dynamics. In both models no bulk quantum corrections need to be considered: classical extremal surfaces are enough to do the job. We argue that our first model is the one which gives the right analogy for what actually happens to evaporating black holes, but we also emphasize that any complete resolution of the information problem will require an understanding of non-perturbative bulk dynamics.

AdS black holes, holography and localization

Abstract: I review some recent progresses in counting the number of microstates of AdS supersymmetric black holes in dimension equal or greater than four using holography. The counting is obtained by applying localization and matrix model techniques to the dual field theory. I cover in details the case of dyonic AdS $$_4$$ black holes, corresponding to a twisted compactification of the dual field theory, and I discuss the state of the art for rotating AdS $$_5$$ black holes.

Information flow in black hole evaporation

Abstract: Recently, new holographic models of black hole evaporation have given fresh insights into the information paradox [1–3]. In these models, the black hole evaporates into an auxiliary bath space after a quantum quench, wherein the holographic theory and the bath are joined. One particularly exciting development is the appearance of ‘ER=EPR’-like wormholes in the (doubly) holographic model of [3]. At late times, the entanglement wedge of the bath includes the interior of the black hole. In this paper, we employ both numerical and analytic methods to study how information about the black hole interior is encoded in the Hawking radiation. In particular, we systematically excise intervals from the bath from the system and study the corresponding Page transition. Repeating this process ad infinitum, we end up with a fractal structure on which the black hole interior is encoded, implementing the uberholography protocol of [4].

Shocks, Superconvergence, and a Stringy Equivalence Principle

Abstract: We study propagation of a probe particle through a series of closely situated gravitational shocks. We argue that in any UV-complete theory of gravity the result does not depend on the shock ordering — in other words, coincident gravitational shocks commute. Shock commutativity leads to nontrivial constraints on low-energy effective theories. In particular, it excludes non-minimal gravitational couplings unless extra degrees of freedom are judiciously added. In flat space, these constraints are encoded in the vanishing of a certain “superconvergence sum rule.” In AdS, shock commutativity becomes the statement that average null energy (ANEC) operators commute in the dual CFT. We prove commutativity of ANEC operators in any unitary CFT and establish sufficient conditions for commutativity of more general light-ray operators. Superconvergence sum rules on CFT data can be obtained by inserting complete sets of states between light-ray operators. In a planar 4d CFT, these sum rules express $$ \frac{a-c}{c} $$ in terms of the OPE data of single-trace operators.

Unitarity Methods in AdS/CFT

Abstract: We develop a systematic unitarity method for loop-level AdS scattering amplitudes, dual to non-planar CFT correlators, from both bulk and boundary perspectives. We identify cut operators acting on bulk amplitudes that put virtual lines on shell, and show how the conformal partial wave decomposition of the amplitudes may be efficiently computed by gluing lower-loop amplitudes. A central role is played by the double discontinuity of the amplitude, which has a direct relation to these cuts. We then exhibit a precise, intuitive map between the diagrammatic approach in the bulk using cutting and gluing, and the algebraic, holographic unitarity method of [1] that constructs the non-planar correlator from planar CFT data. Our analysis focuses mostly on four-point, one-loop diagrams — we compute cuts of the scalar bubble, triangle and box, as well as some one-particle reducible diagrams — in addition to the five-point tree and four-point double-ladder. Analogies with S-matrix unitarity methods are drawn throughout.

Pulling Out the Island with Modular Flow

Abstract: Recent works have suggested that the entanglement wedge of Hawking radiation coming from an AdS black hole will include an island inside the black hole interior after the Page time. In this paper, we propose a concrete way to extract the information from the island by acting only on the radiation degrees of freedom, building on the equivalence between the boundary and bulk modular flow. We consider examples with black holes in JT gravity coupled to baths. In the case that the bulk conformal fields contain free massless fermion field, we provide explicit bulk picture of the information extraction process, where we find that one can almost pull out an operator from the island to the bath with modular flow.

Reflected entropy for an evaporating black hole

Abstract: We study reflected entropy as a mixed state correlation measure in black hole evaporation. As a measure for bipartite mixed states, reflected entropy can be computed between black hole and radiation, radiation and radiation, and even black hole and black hole. We compute reflected entropy curves in three different models: 3-side wormhole model, End-of-the-World (EOW) brane model in three dimensions and two-dimensional eternal black hole plus CFT model. For 3-side wormhole model, we find that reflected entropy is dual to island cross section. The reflected entropy between radiation and black hole increases at early time and then decreases to zero, similar to Page curve, but with a later transition time. The reflected entropy between radiation and radiation first increases and then saturates. For the EOW brane model, similar behaviors of reflected entropy are found. We propose a quantum extremal surface for reflected entropy, which we call quantum extremal cross section. In the eternal black hole plus CFT model, we find a generalized formula for reflected entropy with island cross section as its area term by considering the right half as the canonical purification of the left. Interestingly, the reflected entropy curve between the left black hole and the left radiation is nothing but the Page curve. We also find that reflected entropy between the left black hole and the right black hole decreases and goes to zero at late time. The reflected entropy between radiation and radiation increases at early time and saturates at late time.

Complexified quasinormal modes and the pole-skipping in a holographic system at finite chemical potential

Abstract: We develop a method to study coupled dynamics of gauge-invariant variables, constructed out of metric and gauge field fluctuations on the background of a AdS5 Reissner-Nordstrom black brane. Using this method, we compute the numerical spectrum of quasinormal modes associated with fluctuations of spin 0, 1 and 2, non-perturbatively in μ/T . We also analytically compute the spectrum of hydrodynamic excitations in the small chemical potential limit. Then, by studying the spectral curve at complex momenta in every spin channel, we numerically find points at which hydrodynamic and non-hydrodynamic poles collide. We discuss the relation between such collision points and the convergence radius of the hydrodynamic derivative expansion. Specifically in the spin 0 channel, we find that within the range $$ 1.1\underset{\sim }{<}\mu /T\underset{\sim }{<}2 $$ , the radius of convergence of the hydrodynamic sound mode is set by the absolute value of the complex momentum corresponding to the point at which the sound pole collides with the hydrodynamic diffusion pole. It shows that in holographic systems at finite chemical potential, the convergence of the hydrodynamic derivative expansion in the mentioned range is fully controlled by hydrodynamic informa- tion. As the last result, we explicitly show that the relevant information about quantum chaos in our system can be extracted from the pole-skipping points of energy density re- sponse function. We find a threshold value for μ/T , lower than which the pole-skipping points can be computed perturbatively in a derivative expansion.

Entanglement wedge cross section from CFT: dynamics of local operator quench

Abstract: We derive dynamics of the entanglement wedge cross section from the reflected entropy for local operator quench states in the holographic CFT. By comparing between the reflected entropy and the mutual information in this dynamical setup, we argue that (1) the reflected entropy can diagnose a new perspective of the chaotic nature for given mixed states and (2) it can also characterize classical correlations in the subregion/subregion duality. Moreover, we point out that we must improve the bulk interpretation of a heavy state even in the case of well-studied entanglement entropy. Finally, we show that we can derive the same results from the odd entanglement entropy. The present paper is an extended version of our earlier report arXiv:1907.06646 and includes many new results: non-perturbative quantum correction to the reflected/odd entropy, detailed analysis in both CFT and bulk sides, many technical aspects of replica trick for reflected entropy which turn out to be important for general setup, and explicit forms of multi-point semi- classical conformal blocks under consideration.

CFT unitarity and the AdS Cutkosky rules

Abstract: We derive the Cutkosky rules for conformal field theories (CFTs) at weak and strong coupling. These rules give a simple, diagrammatic method to compute the double-commutator that appears in the Lorentzian inversion formula. We first revisit weakly-coupled CFTs in flat space, where the cuts are performed on Feynman diagrams. We then generalize these rules to strongly-coupled holographic CFTs, where the cuts are performed on the Witten diagrams of the dual theory. In both cases, Cutkosky rules factorize loop diagrams into on-shell sub-diagrams and generalize the standard S-matrix cutting rules. These rules are naturally formulated and derived in Lorentzian momentum space, where the double-commutator is manifestly related to the CFT optical theorem. Finally, we study the AdS cutting rules in explicit examples at tree level and one loop. In these examples, we confirm that the rules are consistent with the OPE limit and that we recover the S-matrix optical theorem in the flat space limit. The AdS cutting rules and the CFT dispersion formula together form a holographic unitarity method to reconstruct Witten diagrams from their cuts.

Microstate counting via Bethe Ansätze in the 4d N $$ \mathcal{N} $$ = 1 superconformal index

Abstract: We study the superconfomal index of four-dimensional toric quiver gauge theories using a Bethe Ansatz approach recently applied by Benini and Milan. Relying on a particular set of solutions to the corresponding Bethe Ansatz equations we evaluate the superconformal index in the large N limit, thus avoiding to take any Cardy-like limit. We present explicit results for theories arising as a stack of N D3 branes at the tip of toric Calabi-Yau cones: the conifold theory, the suspended pinch point gauge theory, the first del Pezzo theory and Yp,q quiver gauge theories. For a suitable choice of the chemical potentials of the theory we find agreement with predictions made for the same theories in the Cardy-like limit. However, for other regions of the domain of chemical potentials the superconformal index is modified and consequently the associated black hole entropy receives corrections. We work out explicitly the simple case of the conifold theory.

Absence of $D^4 R^4$ in M-Theory From ABJM

Abstract: Supersymmetry allows a D4R4 interaction in M-theory, but such an interaction is inconsistent with string theory dualities and so is known to be absent. We provide a novel proof of the absence of the D4R4 M-theory interaction by calculating 4-point scattering amplitudes of 11d supergravitons from ABJM theory. This calculation extends a previous calculation performed to the order corresponding to the R4 interaction. The new ingre- dient in this extension is the interpretation of the fourth derivative of the mass deformed S3 partition function of ABJM theory, which can be determined using supersymmetric localization, as a constraint on the Mellin amplitude associated with the stress tensor mul- tiplet 4-point function. As part of this computation, we relate the 4-point function of the superconformal primary of the stress tensor multiplet of any 3d $$ \mathcal{N} $$ = 8 SCFT to some of the 4-point functions of its superconformal descendants. We also provide a concise formula for a general integrated 4-point function on Sd for any d.

Universal dynamics of heavy operators in CFT 2

Abstract: We obtain an asymptotic formula for the average value of the operator product expansion coefficients of any unitary, compact two dimensional CFT with c > 1. This formula is valid when one or more of the operators has large dimension or — in the presence of a twist gap — has large spin. Our formula is universal in the sense that it depends only on the central charge and not on any other details of the theory. This result unifies all previous asymptotic formulas for CFT2 structure constants, including those derived from crossing symmetry of four point functions, modular covariance of torus correlation functions, and higher genus modular invariance. We determine this formula at finite central charge by deriving crossing kernels for higher genus crossing equations, which give analytic control over the structure constants even in the absence of exact knowledge of the conformal blocks. The higher genus modular kernels are obtained by sewing together the elementary kernels for four-point crossing and modular transforms of torus one-point functions. Our asymptotic formula is related to the DOZZ formula for the structure constants of Liouville theory, and makes precise the sense in which Liouville theory governs the universal dynamics of heavy operators in any CFT. The large central charge limit provides a link with 3D gravity, where the averaging over heavy states corresponds to a coarse-graining over black hole microstates in holographic theories. Our formula also provides an improved understanding of the Eigenstate Thermalization Hypothesis (ETH) in CFT2, and suggests that ETH can be generalized to other kinematic regimes in two dimensional CFTs.

Landau diagrams in AdS and S-matrices from conformal correlators

Abstract: Quantum field theories in AdS generate conformal correlation functions on the boundary, and in the limit where AdS is nearly flat one should be able to extract an S-matrix from such correlators. We discuss a particularly simple position-space procedure to do so. It features a direct map from boundary positions to (on-shell) momenta and thereby relates cross ratios to Mandelstam invariants. This recipe succeeds in several examples, includes the momentum-conserving delta functions, and can be shown to imply the two proposals in [1] based on Mellin space and on the OPE data. Interestingly the procedure does not always work: the Landau singularities of a Feynman diagram are shown to be part of larger regions, to be called ‘bad regions’, where the flat-space limit of the Witten diagram diverges. To capture these divergences we introduce the notion of Landau diagrams in AdS. As in flat space, these describe on-shell particles propagating over large distances in a complexified space, with a form of momentum conservation holding at each bulk vertex. As an application we recover the anomalous threshold of the four-point triangle diagram at the boundary of a bad region.