Scale-separated AdS vacua and holography

Thesis

This thesis explores potential holographic duals of AdS vacua in string theory with a parametric separation between the AdS curvature scale and the scale of the internal dimensions. Our primary focus is on the four-dimensional vacua constructed by DeWolfe, Giryavets, Kachru, and Taylor (DGKT, 2005). We analyze the spectrum of low-lying scalar operators and find a universal structure: all dimensions are integer-valued, independent of flux choices or intersection numbers. For similar three-dimensional scale-separated AdS vacua, we find that integer conformal dimensions are not always present there. We explain how integer dimensions come together with exotic shift symmetries for the scalar fields that depend polynomially on spacetime coordinates. Additionally, we observe how vacua with integer dimensions seem to correspond to a simplified holographic brane set-up, where large N scalings can be derived in a simple way from the near-horizon geometry, similarly to the well-understood Freund-Rubin vacua. Finally, we present a systematic method for deriving the holographic brane setup from the flux-induced scalar potential and apply this framework to several examples, including the DGKT model.

Authors: Apers, F

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-54boyjore
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: scale separation; ADS/CFT correspondence; string theory
• Subjects: Theoretical Physics