New Developments in AdS3/CFT2 Holography

Abstract

Two of the key problems of modern theories of fundamental interactions are the under-standing of strongly coupled gauge theories and quantum gravity. Holographic duality, through the celebrated work of Maldacena, connects these two seemingly very different problems; it does so via a strong/weak correspondence, making it possible to infer the behavior of strongly coupled gauge theory from a weakly coupled theory of gravity and vice versa. This striking conjecture has fundamentally reshaped the way we think of gauge and gravity theories in the quantum regime.

A quantitative description of gauge/string duals with little or no supersymmetry would likely lead to a much better understanding of strongly coupled phenomena such as confinement or black-hole entropy, making their study an important goal of the community. However, a quantitative framework of generic dualities remains very ambitious. Instead, it may be useful to identify examples which have interesting dynamical behaviour that also retain some simplifying features that allow for a quantitative analysis.

The AdS3 /CFT2 duality is an ideal toy-model for such investigations. Since it has a relatively small amount of supersymmetry (half of the maximally supersymmetric AdS5 /CFT4 example) it allows for a rich dynamics. At the same time, AdS3 /CFT2 plays an important role in a variety of diverse problems in theoretical physics including the strong-coupling dynamics of two-dimensional gauge theories, dynamics of three-dimensional black-holes, quantum instanton moduli space of four-dimensional gauge theory, microscopic entropy counting in five-dimensional black-holes, higher-spin spin symmetries and integrable models, to name but a few. As a result, there are a number of approaches to understanding this duality, each with its own set of tools.

The principal aims of this workshop are:

 1. To review recent progress in AdS3 /CFT2. 

 2. To assemble a critical mass of leading international researchers in order to stimulate collaboration and inspire new developments. 

 3. To contribute to the research training of young researchers in Italy, Europe and world-wide.

 
Applications for the workshop and the school closed on October 31. Should you wish to submit a late application, please contact the organisers at  ggiworkshop17@gmail.com