Metric- and frame-like higher-spin gauge theories in three dimensions

We study the relation between the frame-like and metric-like formulation of higher-spin gauge theories in three space-time dimensions. We concentrate on the theory that is described by an SL(3) x SL(3) Chern-Simons theory in the frame-like formulation. The metric-like theory is obtained by eliminating the generalised spin connection by its equation of motion, and by expressing everything in terms of the metric and a spin-3 Fronsdal field. We give an exact map between fields and gauge parameters in both formulations. To work out the gauge transformations explicitly in terms of metric-like variables, we have to make a perturbative expansion in the spin-3 field. We describe an algorithm how to do this systematically, and we work out the gauge transformations to cubic order in the spin-3 field. We use these results to determine the gauge algebra to this order, and explain why the commutator of two spin-3 transformations only closes on-shell.Comment: 26 pages, no figure

The large level limit of Kazama-Suzuki models

Limits of families of conformal field theories are of interest in the context of AdS/CFT dualities. We explore here the large level limit of the two-dimensional N=(2,2) superconformal W_{n+1} minimal models that appear in the context of the supersymmetric higher-spin AdS3/CFT2 duality. These models are constructed as Kazama-Suzuki coset models of the form SU(n+1)/U(n). We determine a family of boundary conditions in the limit theories, and use the modular bootstrap to obtain the full bulk spectrum of N=2 super-W_{n+1} primaries in the theory. We also confirm the identification of this limit theory as the continuous orbifold C^n/U(n) that was discussed recently.Comment: 20 page

Towards metric-like higher-spin gauge theories in three dimensions

We consider the coupling of a symmetric spin-3 gauge field to three-dimensional gravity in a second order metric-like formulation. The action that corresponds to an SL(3,R) x SL(3,R) Chern-Simons theory in the frame-like formulation is identified to quadratic order in the spin-3 field. We apply our result to compute corrections to the area law for higher-spin black holes using Wald's entropy formula.Comment: 29 pages; v2: typos correcte

Vertex-Constraints in 3D Higher Spin Theories

We analyse the constraints imposed by gauge invariance on higher-order interactions between massless bosonic fields in three-dimensional higher-spin gravities. We show that vertices of quartic and higher order that are independent of the cubic ones can only involve scalars and Maxwell fields. As a consequence, the full non-linear interactions of massless higher-spin fields are completely fixed by the cubic vertex.Comment: 5 page

The Lorentz Anomaly via Operator Product Expansion

The emergence of a critical dimension is one of the most striking features of string theory. One way to obtain it is by demanding closure of the Lorentz algebra in the light-cone gauge quantisation, as discovered for bosonic strings more than fourty years ago. We give a detailed derivation of this classical result based on the operator product expansion on the Lorentzian world-sheet

Branes on Group Manifolds, Gluon Condensates, and twisted K-theory

In this work we study the dynamics of branes on group manifolds G deep in the stringy regime. After giving a brief overview of the various branes that can be constructed within the boundary conformal field theory approach, we analyze in detail the condensation processes that occur on stacks of such branes. At large volume our discussion is based on certain effective gauge theories on non-commutative `fuzzy' spaces. Using the `absorption of the boundary spin'-principle which was formulated by Affleck and Ludwig in their work on the Kondo model, we extrapolate the brane dynamics into the stringy regime. For supersymmetric theories, the resulting condensation processes turn out to be consistent with the existence of certain conserved charges taking values in some non-trivial discrete abelian groups. We obtain strong constraints on these charge groups for G = SU(N). The results may be compared with a recent proposal of Bouwknegt and Mathai according to which charge groups on curved spaces X (with a non-vanishing NSNS 3-form field strength H) are given by the twisted K-groups K*_H(X).Comment: 33 pages, 1 figur