Flat space (higher spin) gravity with chemical potentials

We introduce flat space spin-3 gravity in the presence of chemical potentials and discuss some applications to flat space cosmology solutions, their entropy, free energy and flat space orbifold singularity resolution. Our results include flat space Einstein gravity with chemical potentials as special case. We discover novel types of phase transitions between flat space cosmologies with spin-3 hair and show that the branch that continuously connects to spin-2 gravity becomes thermodynamically unstable for sufficiently large temperature or spin-3 chemical potential

Lifshitz holography with isotropic scale invariance

Is it possible for an anisotropic Lifshitz critical point to actually exhibit isotropic conformal invariance? We answer this question in the affirmative by constructing a concrete holographic realization. We study three-dimensional spin-3 higher-spin gauge theory with a z = 2 Lifshitz ground state with non-trivial spin-3 background. We provide consistent boundary conditions and determine the associated asymptotic symmetry algebra. Surprisingly, we find that the algebra consists of two copies of the W 3 $${\mathcal{W}}_3$$ extended conformal algebra, which is the extended conformal algebra of an isotropic critical system. Moreover, the central charges are given by 3 ℓ/ (2 G ). We consider the possible geometric interpretation of the theory in light of the higher spin gauge invariance and remark on the implications of the asymptotic symmetry analysis

Unitary W-algebras and three-dimensional higher spin gravities with spin one symmetry

We investigate whether there are unitary families of W-algebras with spin one fields in the natural example of the Feigin-Semikhatov $W_n^{(2) }$ -algebra. This algebra is conjecturally a quantum Hamiltonian reduction corresponding to a non-principal nilpotent element. We conjecture that this algebra admits a unitary real form for even n . Our main result is that this conjecture is consistent with the known part of the operator product algebra, and especially it is true for n = 2 and n = 4. Moreover, we find certain ranges of allowed levels where a positive definite inner product is possible. We also find a unitary conformal field theory for every even n at the special level k + n = ( n + 1) / ( n − 1). At these points, the $W_n^{(2) }$ -algebra is nothing but a compactified free boson. This family of W-algebras admits an ’t Hooft limit. Further, in the case of n = 4, we reproduce the algebra from the higher spin gravity point of view. In general, gravity computations allow us to reproduce some leading coefficients of the operator product