Quantization in Ads and the Ads/CFT Correspondence

The quantization of a scalar field in AdS leads to two kinds of normalizable modes, usually called regular and irregular modes. The regular one is easily taken into account in the standard prescription for the AdS/CFT correspondence. The irregular mode requires a modified prescription which we argue is not completely satisfactory. We discuss an alternative quantization in AdS which incorporates boundary terms in a natural way. Within this quantization scheme we present an improved prescription for the AdS/CFT correspondence which can be applied to both, regular and irregular modes. Boundary conditions other than Dirichlet are naturally treated in this new improved setting.Comment: 8 pages. Contribution to the Proceedings of the Second Londrina Winter School "Mathematical Methods in Physics", August 25-30, 2002, Londrina, PR, Brazil; v2: typos correcte

Multi-Trace Operators and the Generalized AdS/CFT Prescription

We show that multi-trace interactions can be consistently incorporated into an extended AdS/CFT prescription involving the inclusion of generalized boundary conditions and a modified Legendre transform prescription. We find new and consistent results by considering a self-contained formulation which relates the quantization of the bulk theory to the AdS/CFT correspondence and the perturbation at the boundary by double-trace interactions. We show that there exist particular double-trace perturbations for which irregular modes are allowed to propagate as well as the regular ones. We perform a detailed analysis of many different possible situations, for both minimally and non-minimally coupled cases. In all situations, we make use of a new constraint which is found by requiring consistence. In the particular non-minimally coupled case, the natural extension of the Gibbons-Hawking surface term is generated.Comment: 27 pages, LaTeX, v.2:minor changes, v.3:comments added, v.4:several new results, discussions, references and a section of Conclusions added. Previous results unchanged, v.5: minor changes. Final version to be published in Phys.Rev.

Energy and the AdS/CFT Correspondence

We consider a scalar field theory on AdS in both minimally and non-minimally coupled cases. We show that there exist constraints which arise in the quantization of the scalar field theory on AdS which cannot be reproduced through the usual AdS/CFT prescription. We argue that the usual energy, defined through the stress-energy tensor, is not the natural one to be considered in the context of the AdS/CFT correspondence. We analyze a new definition of the energy which makes use of the Noether current corresponding to time displacements in global coordinates. We compute the new energy for Dirichlet, Neumann and mixed boundary conditions on the scalar field and for both the minimally and non-minimally coupled cases. Then, we perform the quantization of the scalar field theory on AdS showing that, for `regular' and `irregular' modes, the new energy is conserved, positive and finite. We show that the quantization gives rise, in a natural way, to a generalized AdS/CFT prescription which maps to the boundary all the information contained in the bulk. In particular, we show that the divergent local terms of the on-shell action contain information about the Legendre transformed generating functional, and that the new constraints for which the irregular modes propagate in the bulk are the same constraints for which such divergent local terms cancel out. In this situation, the addition of counterterms is not required. We also show that there exist particular cases for which the unitarity bound is reached, and the conformal dimension becomes independent of the effective mass. This phenomenon has no bulk counterpart

Bound States in the AdS/CFT Correspondence

We consider a massive scalar field theory in anti-de Sitter space, in both minimally and non-minimally coupled cases. We introduce a relevant double-trace perturbation at the boundary, by carefully identifying the correct source and generating functional for the corresponding conformal operator. We show that such relevant double-trace perturbation introduces changes in the coefficients in the boundary terms of the action, which in turn govern the existence of a bound state in the bulk. For instance, we show that the usual action, containing no additional boundary terms, gives rise to a bound state, which can be avoided only through the addition of a proper boundary term. Another notorious example is that of a conformally coupled scalar field, supplemented by a Gibbons-Hawking term, for which there is no associated bound state. In general, in both minimally and non-minimally coupled cases, we explicitly compute the boundary terms which give rise to a bound state, and which ones do not. In the non-minimally coupled case, and when the action is supplemented by a Gibbons-Hawking term, this also fixes allowed values of the coupling coefficient to the metric. We interpret our results as the fact that the requirement to satisfy the Breitenlohner-Freedman bound does not suffice to prevent tachyonic behavior from existing in the bulk, as it must be supplemented by additional conditions on the coefficients in the boundary terms of the action.Comment: 32 pages, Latex. v2: added comments and clarifications, minor changes. v3: corrected wrong result in the non-minimally coupled case, added reference, minor changes. v4: Added new results and discussions, parts of the paper are rewritten. Final version to be published in Phys.Rev.

A Note on Scalar Field Theory in AdS_3/CFT_2

We consider a scalar field theory in AdS_{d+1}, and introduce a formalism on surfaces at equal values of the radial coordinate. In particular, we define the corresponding conjugate momentum. We compute the Noether currents for isometries in the bulk, and perform the asymptotic limit on the corresponding charges. We then introduce Poisson brackets at the border, and show that the asymptotic values of the bulk scalar field and the conjugate momentum transform as conformal fields of scaling dimensions \Delta_{-} and \Delta_{+}, respectively, where \Delta_{\pm} are the standard parameters giving the asymptotic behavior of the scalar field in AdS. Then we consider the case d=2, where we obtain two copies of the Virasoro algebra, with vanishing central charge at the classical level. An AdS_3/CFT_2 prescription, giving the commutators of the boundary CFT in terms of the Poisson brackets at the border, arises in a natural way. We find that the boundary CFT is similar to a generalized ghost system. We introduce two different ground states, and then compute the normal ordering constants and quantum central charges, which depend on the mass of the scalar field and the AdS radius. We discuss certain implications of the results.Comment: 24 pages. v2: added minor clarification. v3: added several comments and discussions, abstract sligthly changed. Version to be publishe

AdS/CFT, Multitrace Deformations and New Instabilities of Nonlocal String Theories

We study "multitrace" deformations of large N master fields in models with a mass gap. In particular, we determine the conditions for the multitrace couplings to drive tachyonic instabilities. These tachyons represent new local instabilities of the associated nonlocal string theories. In the particular case of Dp-branes at finite temperature, we consider topology-changing phase transitions and the effect of multitrace perturbations on the corresponding phase diagrams.Comment: harvmac. 28 pages. 9 eps figure

Duality in Noncommutative Topologically Massive Gauge Field Theory Revisited

We introduce a master action in noncommutative space, out of which we obtain the action of the noncommutative Maxwell-Chern-Simons theory. Then, we look for the corresponding dual theory at both first and second orders in the noncommutative parameter. At the first order, the dual theory happens to be, precisely, the action obtained from the usual commutative Self-Dual model by generalizing the Chern-Simons term to its noncommutative version, including a cubic term. Since this resulting theory is also equivalent to the noncommutative massive Thirring model in the large fermion mass limit, we remove, as a byproduct, the obstacles arising in the generalization to noncommutative space, and to the first nontrivial order in the noncommutative parameter, of the bosonization in three dimensions. Then, performing calculations at the second order in the noncommutative parameter, we explicitly compute a new dual theory which differs from the noncommutative Self-Dual model, and further, differs also from other previous results, and involves a very simple expression in terms of ordinary fields. In addition, a remarkable feature of our results is that the dual theory is local, unlike what happens in the non-Abelian, but commutative case. We also conclude that the generalization to noncommutative space of bosonization in three dimensions is possible only when considering the first non-trivial corrections over ordinary space.Comment: 14 pages, Latex. v2: comments and references added, minor changes. v3: analysis extended to the second order in the noncommutative parameter, references and discussions added. v4: added discussion on higher order corrections, minor change

Multitrace deformations, Gamow states, and Stability of AdS/CFT

We analyze the effect of multitrace deformations in conformal field theories at leading order in a large N approximation. These theories admit a description in terms of a weakly coupled gravity dual. We show how the deformations can be mapped into boundary terms of the gravity theory and how to reproduce the RG equations found in field theory. In the case of doubletrace deformations, and for bulk scalars with masses in the range $-d^2/4<m^2<-d^2/4+1$, the deformed theory flows between two fixed points of the renormalization group, manifesting a resonant behavior at the scale characterizing the transition between the two CFT's. On the gravity side the resonance is mapped into an IR non-normalizable mode (Gamow state) whose overlap with the UV region increases as the dual operator approaches the free field limit. We argue that this resonant behavior is a generic property of large N theories in the conformal window, and associate it to a remnant of the Nambu-Goldstone mode of dilatation invariance. We emphasize the role of nonminimal couplings to gravity and establish a stability theorem for scalar/gravity systems with AdS boundary conditions in the presence of arbitrary boundary potentials and nonminimal coupling.Comment: 14 pages, references added, introduction change

(2,0) Chern-Simons Supergravity Plus Matter Near the Boundary of AdS_3

We examine the boundary behaviour of the gauged N=(2,0) supergravity in D=3 coupled to an arbitrary number of scalar supermultiplets which parametrize a Kahler manifold. In addition to the gravitational coupling constant, the model depends on two parameters, namely the cosmological constant and the size of the Kahler manifold. It is shown that regular and irregular boundary conditions can be imposed on the matter fields depending on the size of the sigma model manifold. It is also shown that the super AdS transformations in the bulk produce the transformations of the N=(2,0) conformal supergravity and scalar multiplets on the boundary, containing fields with nonvanishing Weyl weights determined by the ratio of the sigma model and the gravitational coupling constants. Various types of (2,0) superconformal multiplets are found on the boundary and in one case the superconformal symmetry is shown to be realized in an unconventional way.Comment: 28 pages, latex, references adde

Boundary multi-trace deformations and OPEs in AdS/CFT correspondence

We argue that multi-trace deformations of the boundary CFT in AdS/CFT correspondence can arise through the OPE of single-trace operators. We work out the example of a scalar field in AdS_5 with cubic self interaction. By an appropriate reparametrization of the boundary data we are able to deform the boundary CFT by a marginal operator that couples to the conformal anomaly. Our method can be used in the analysis of multi-trace deformations in N=4 SYM where the OPEs of various single-trace operators are known.Comment: 18 pages, v2 refinements and acknowledgements adde