Quantum WW-symmetry in AdS3AdS_3

Sep, 2010
24 pages
Published in:
  • JHEP 02 (2011) 004
e-Print:

Citations per year

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Abstract: (arXiv)
It has recently been argued that, classically, massless higher spin theories in AdS_3 have an enlarged W_N-symmetry as the algebra of asymptotic isometries. In this note we provide evidence that this symmetry is realised (perturbatively) in the quantum theory. We perform a one loop computation of the fluctuations for a massless spin ss field around a thermal AdS_3 background. The resulting determinants are evaluated using the heat kernel techniques of arXiv:0911.5085. The answer factorises holomorphically, and the contributions from the various spin ss fields organise themselves into vacuum characters of the W_N symmetry. For the case of the hs(1,1) theory consisting of an infinite tower of massless higher spin particles, the resulting answer can be simply expressed in terms of (two copies of) the MacMahon function.
  • Gauge-gravity correspondence
  • AdS-CFT Correspondence
  • Conformal and W Symmetry
  • spin: high
  • background: anti-de Sitter
  • particle: spin
  • symmetry: W(N)
  • field theory: massless
  • background: thermal
  • fluctuation