Smoothed Transitions in Higher Spin AdS Gravity
Abstract
We consider CFTs conjectured to be dual to higher spin theories of gravity in AdS_3 and AdS_4. Two dimensional CFTs with W_N symmetry are considered in the lambda=0 (k --> infinity) limit, where they are conjectured to be described by continuous orbifolds. The torus partition function is computed, using reasonable assumptions, and equals that of a free field theory. We find no phase transition at temperatures of order one; the usual Hawking-Page phase transition is removed by the highly degenerate light states associated with conical defect states in the bulk. Three dimensional Chern-Simons-matter CFTs with vector-like matter are considered on T^3, where the dynamics is described by an effective theory for the eigenvalues of the holonomies. Likewise, we find no evidence for a Hawking-Page phase transition at large level k.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1209.5396,
title = {Smoothed Transitions in Higher Spin AdS Gravity},
author = {Shamik Banerjee and Alejandra Castro and Simeon Hellerman and Eliot Hijano and Arnaud Lepage-Jutier and Alexander Maloney and Stephen Shenker},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1209.5396},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
23 pages, LaTeX, 2 figures; v2: refs added