Long-Distance AdS Physics from the CFT Bootstrap

Speaker: Matthew Walters, Johns Hopkins University

When: April 2, 2014 (Wed), 03:30PM to 04:30PM (add to my calendar)
Location: PRB 595

This event is part of the HET Seminar Series.

Abstract: I will discuss recent work studying the universal properties of long-distance physics in anti-de Sitter spacetime from the perspective of conformal field theory. Using the famed AdS/CFT correspondence, the behavior of interactions between objects at large separation in AdS can be rephrased in terms of the anomalous dimensions of operators with large spin in CFT. The structure of these operators can then be greatly constrained using the standard conformal bootstrap program. After reviewing a recent CFT-based proof of the cluster decomposition principle for AdS theories in four or more dimensions, I will proceed to discuss the generalization of this proof to three-dimensional AdS, specifically in the limit of semi-classical gravity. This generalization will then reveal the rich structure of 3D gravity, namely the existence of deficit angles and the thermal nature of BTZ black holes.