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Title: Semiclassical Virasoro blocks from AdS3 gravity

Journal Article · · Journal of High Energy Physics (Online)
 [1];  [1];  [2];  [1]
  1. Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
  2. 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.

Research Organization:
Princeton Univ., NJ (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
FG02-91ER40671; PHY-1313986; PHY11-25915
OSTI ID:
1437225
Journal Information:
Journal of High Energy Physics (Online), Vol. 2015, Issue 12; ISSN 1029-8479
Publisher:
Springer BerlinCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 94 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (11)

Holographic interpretation of 1-point toroidal block in the semiclassical limit journal June 2016
Entanglement, holography and causal diamonds journal August 2016
Probing thermality beyond the diagonal journal December 2018
Higher-point conformal blocks and entanglement entropy in heavy states text January 2016
Probing thermality beyond the diagonal text January 2018
Hawking from Catalan text January 2015
Higher-point conformal blocks and entanglement entropy in heavy states text January 2016
Holographic interpretation of 1-point toroidal block in the semiclassical limit text January 2016
On Information Loss in AdS$_3$/CFT$_2$ preprint January 2016
A Stereoscopic Look into the Bulk text January 2016
The Conformal Bootstrap: Theory, Numerical Techniques, and Applications text January 2018

Figures / Tables (4)


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