Metric isometries, holography, and continuous symmetry operators
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: In the AdS/CFT correspondence, a topological symmetry operator of the boundary conformal field theory (CFT) is dual to a dynamical brane in the gravitational bulk. Said differently, this predicts a dynamical brane for every global symmetry of the boundary CFT. We analyze this correspondence for continuous symmetries which arise from a consistent truncation of isometries on the “internal” factor X of AdS × X . In the extra-dimensional geometry, these branes are associated with various metric singularities and do not arise from wrapped D-branes. Boosts relate configurations interpreted as topological symmetry operators and heavy defects in the CFT. From the perspective of the AdS factor, with gravity and bulk gauge fields, these are codimension-2 Gukov-Witten-like vortex configurations which are the gravity duals of 0-form symmetry operators. These effective branes come with an asymptotic tension and size which is also fully fixed by bulk dynamics. We use this higher-dimensional perspective to determine properties of the worldvolume theory for these branes. We also discuss how these considerations generalize to more general quantum field theories engineered via string theory which need not possess a semiclassical gravity dual.
DOI: 10.1103/t68l-n5gg
Language: English
Subfield: Nuclear and High Energy Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Funders: National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy, Simons Foundation, University of Pennsylvania, European Commission, United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation, Javna Agencija za Raziskovalno Dejavnost RS, Center of Mathematical Sciences and Applications, Harvard University, Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
OpenAlex ID: W4416733473