English

Hidden Conformal Symmetry in AdS$_2\times$S$^2$ Beyond Tree Level

High Energy Physics - Theory 2026-04-02 v3

Abstract

Correlators of a certain one-dimensional superconformal field theory dual to hypermultiplets in AdS2×_2\timesS2^2 exhibit a hidden four-dimensional conformal symmetry which allows one to repackage all tree-level 4-point correlators into a single four-dimensional object corresponding to a contact diagram arising from a massless ϕ4\phi^4 theory in AdS2×_2\timesS2^2. This theory serves as a toy model for IIB string theory in AdS5×_5\timesS5^5 and is interesting in its own right because AdS2×_2\timesS2^2 describes the near-horizon limit of extremal black holes in four dimensions. We argue that after acting with an SU(1,1)×SU(2)SU(1,1)\times SU(2) Casimir, all one-loop correlators can similarly be encoded by a four-dimensional function which arises from a one-loop scalar bubble diagram in AdS2×_2\timesS2^2, explaining how the hidden conformal symmetry extends beyond tree level. Finally, we conjecture a scalar effective field theory with a derivative interaction in AdS2×_2\timesS2^2 whose Witten diagrams should directly reproduce 4-point correlators to all loops without acting with Casimirs.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2312.15678,
  title  = {Hidden Conformal Symmetry in AdS$_2\times$S$^2$ Beyond Tree Level},
  author = {P. J. Heslop and A. E. Lipstein and M. Santagata},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2312.15678},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

5 pages plus appendices; v2: minor changes and added references, published version; v3: typos fixed