We discuss aspects of holography in the AdS_3 \times S^p near string geometry of a collection of straight fundamental heterotic strings. We use anomalies and symmetries to determine general features of the dual CFT. The symmetries suggest the appearance of nonlinear superconformal algebras, and we show how these arise in the framework of holographic renormalization methods. The nonlinear algebras imply intricate formulas for the central charge, and we show that in the bulk these correspond to an infinite series of quantum gravity corrections. We also makes some comments on the worldsheet sigma-model for strings on AdS_3\times S^2, which is the holographic dual geometry of parallel heterotic strings in five dimensions.

Per Kraus Finn Larsen Akhil Shah

We apply the recently established connection between nonlinear fluid dynamics and AdS gravity to the case of the dyonic black brane in AdS_4. This yields the equations of fluid dynamics for a 2+1 dimensional charged fluid in a background magnetic field. We construct the gravity solution to second order in the derivative expansion. From this we find the fluid dynamical stress tensor and charge current to second and third order in derivatives respectively, along with values for the associated transport coefficients.

James Hansen Per Kraus

We construct asymptotically AdS_5 solutions of Einstein-Maxwell theory dual to N=4 SYM theory on R^{3,1} in the presence of a background magnetic field. The solutions interpolate between AdS_5 and a near horizon AdS_3\times T^2. The central charge of the near horizon region, and hence low temperature entropy of the solution, is found to be \sqrt{4\over 3} times that of free N=4 SYM theory. The entropy vanishes at zero temperature. We also present the generalization of these solutions to arbitrary spacetime dimensionality.

Eric D'Hoker Per Kraus

We develop an efficient method for computing thermal partition functions of weakly coupled scalar fields in AdS. We consider quartic contact interactions and show how to evaluate the relevant two-loop vacuum diagrams without performing any explicit AdS integration, the key step being the use of Kallen-Lehmann type identities. This leads to a simple method for extracting double-trace anomalous dimensions in any spacetime dimension, recovering known first-order results in a streamlined fashion.

Per Kraus Stathis Megas Allic Sivaramakrishnan

The path integral over massless quantum fields in Minkowski space with scattering boundary conditions defines a Carrollian partition function on the null boundary. We develop this framework for non-Abelian gauge theory, both from a general perspective and through explicit examples that highlight subtle aspects of soft modes and asymptotic symmetries. These include falloff conditions, Goldstone modes and their antipodal matching, and factors of two associated with conditionally convergent integrals arising in the derivation of soft theorems. We employ path integral (rather than canonical) methods throughout.

Per Kraus Richard M. Myers

We consider how two classes of heavy particles: extra vector-like families, and strongly interacting superpartners, manifest themselves below threshold, by interference of virtual loops with normal QCD processes. Quantitative estimates are presented.

Per Kraus Frank Wilczek

Virasoro conformal blocks are expected to exponentiate in the limit of large central charge $c$ and large operator dimensions $h_i$, with the ratios $h_i/c$ held fixed. We prove this by employing the oscillator formulation of the Virasoro algebra and its representations. The techniques developed are then used to provide new derivations of some standard results on conformal blocks.

Mert Besken Shouvik Datta Per Kraus

We study the behaviour of scalar fields on background geometries which undergo quantum tunneling. The two examples considered are a moving mirror in flat space which tunnels through a potential barrier, and a false vacuum bubble which tunnels to form a black hole. WKB approximations to the Schrodinger and Wheeler-DeWitt equations are made, leading one to solve field equations on the Euclidean metric solution interpolating between the classically allowed geometries. The state of the field after tunneling can then be determined using the method of non-unitary Bogolubov transformations developed by Rubakov. It is shown that the effect of the tunneling is to damp any excitations initially present, and, in the case of the black hole, that the behaviour of fields on the Euclidean Kruskal manifold ensures that the late time radiation will be thermal at the Hawking temperature.

Per Kraus

At zero temperature the Coulomb Branch of ${\cal N}=4$ super Yang-Mills theory is described in supergravity by multi-center solutions with D3-brane charge. At finite temperature and chemical potential the vacuum degeneracy is lifted, and minima of the free energy are shown to have a supergravity description as rotating black D3-branes. In the extreme limit these solutions single out preferred points on the moduli space that can be interpreted as simple distributions of branes --- for instance, a uniformly charged planar disc. We exploit this geometrical representation to study the thermodynamics of rotating black D3-branes. The low energy excitations of the system appear to be governed by an effective string theory which is related to the singularity in spacetime.

Per Kraus Finn Larsen Sandip P. Trivedi

We propose a procedure for computing the boundary stress tensor associated with a gravitating system in asymptotically anti-de Sitter space. Our definition is free of ambiguities encountered by previous attempts, and correctly reproduces the masses and angular momenta of various spacetimes. Via the AdS/CFT correspondence, our classical result is interpretable as the expectation value of the stress tensor in a quantum conformal field theory. We demonstrate that the conformal anomalies in two and four dimensions are recovered. The two dimensional stress tensor transforms with a Schwarzian derivative and the expected central charge. We also find a nonzero ground state energy for global AdS_5, and show that it exactly matches the Casimir energy of the dual N=4 super Yang-Mills theory on S^3 x R.

Vijay Balasubramanian Per Kraus