Semiclassical Virasoro blocks from AdS3 gravity

Hijano, Eliot; Kraus, Per; Perlmutter, Eric; Snively, River

doi:10.1007/JHEP12(2015)077

Semiclassical Virasoro blocks from AdS₃ gravity

Journal Article · Mon Dec 14 00:00:00 EST 2015 · Journal of High Energy Physics (Online)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP12(2015)077· OSTI ID:1437225

Hijano, Eliot ^[1]; Kraus, Per ^[2]; Perlmutter, Eric ^[3]; Snively, River ^[2]

Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy; University of British Columbia
Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
Princeton Univ., NJ (United States). Dept. of Physics

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 [1], evaluated in locally AdS₃ geometries generated by backreaction of heavy operators. We also provide an alternative computation of the heavy-light semiclassical block — in which two external operators become parametrically heavy — as a certain scattering process involving higher spin gauge fields in AdS₃; this approach highlights the chiral nature of Virasoro blocks. Finally, these techniques may be systematically extended to compute corrections to these blocks and to interpolate amongst the different semiclassical regimes.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Princeton Univ., NJ (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE

Grant/Contract Number:: FG02-91ER40671

OSTI ID:: 1437225

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 22587564

Journal Information:: Journal of High Energy Physics (Online), Journal Name: Journal of High Energy Physics (Online) Journal Issue: 12 Vol. 2015; ISSN 1029-8479

Publisher:: Springer BerlinCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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