Related papers: Four Dimensional Conformal Supergravity From AdS S…
We construct superconformal gauged sigma models with extended rigid supersymmetry in three dimensions. Those with N>4 have necessarily flat targets, but the models with N \leq 4 admit non-flat targets, which are cones with appropriate…
The AdS/CFT correspondence is an exact duality between string theory in anti-de Sitter space and conformal field theories on its boundary. Inspired in this correspondence some relations between strings and non conformal field theories have…
The leitmotif of this paper is the question of whether four- and higher even-dimensional Conformal Gravities do have a Chern-Simons pedigree. We show that Weyl gravity can be obtained as dimensional reduction of a five-dimensional…
We present a new gauging of maximal supergravity in five spacetime dimensions with gauge group containing ISO(5), involving the local scaling symmetry of the metric, and admitting a supersymmetric anti-de Sitter vacuum. We show this maximal…
We find new, local, non-supersymmetric conformal field theories obtained by relevant deformations of the N=4 super Yang Mills theory in the large $N$ limit. We contruct interpolating supergravity solutions that naturally represent the flow…
Field theories on anti-de Sitter (AdS) space can be studied by realizing them as low-energy limits of AdS vacua of string/M theory. In an appropriate limit, the field theories decouple from the rest of string/M theory. Since these vacua are…
Extremal cubic couplings in AdS relate bulk fields such that $\Delta_i+\Delta_j=\Delta_k$. Such couplings lead to divergent 3-point Witten diagrams, and do not occur in theories with maximal supersymmetry. We consider the simplest theories…
Conformal theories in a d dimensional spacetime may be expressed as manifestly conformal theories in a d+2 dimensional conformal space as first proposed by Dirac. The reduction to d dimensions goes via the d+1 dimensional hypercone in the…
In this thesis we discuss non-perturbative phenomena emerging in gauge and in string/supergravity theories. We compute the partition function of 5D minimal supersymmetric U(1) gauge theory with extra adjoint matter in general…
The use of gauged ${\cal N} = 8$ supergravity as a tool in studying the AdS/CFT correspondence for ${\cal N} = 4$ Yang-Mills theory is reviewed. The supergravity potential implies a non-trivial, supersymmetric IR fixed point, and the flow…
We study the constraints imposed by superconformal symmetry, crossing symmetry, and unitarity for theories with four supercharges in spacetime dimension $2\leq d\leq 4$. We show how superconformal algebras with four Poincar\'{e}…
Using exceptional generalised geometry, we classify which five-dimensional ${\cal N}=2$ gauged supergravities can arise as a consistent truncation of 10-/11-dimensional supergravity. Exceptional generalised geometry turns the classification…
We review a formalism of superstring quantization with manifest six-dimensional spacetime supersymmetry, and apply it to AdS_3 x S^3 backgrounds with Ramond-Ramond flux. The resulting description is a conformal field theory based on a sigma…
We construct the general form of matter coupled N=4 gauged supergravity in five dimensions. Depending on the structure of the gauge group, these theories are found to involve vector and/or tensor multiplets. When self-dual tensor fields are…
Field theories in black hole spacetimes undergo dimensional reduction near horizon (in the Rindler limit) to two dimensional conformal field theories. We investigate this enhancement of symmetries in the context of gauge/gravity duality by…
We present a detailed analysis of $AdS_3$ gravity, the BTZ black hole and the associated conformal field theories (CFTs). In particular we focus on the non-extreme six-dimensional string solution with background metric $AdS_3 \times S^3$…
In six dimensions, cancellation of gauge, gravitational, and mixed anomalies strongly constrains the set of quantum field theories which can be coupled consistently to gravity. We show that for some classes of six-dimensional supersymmetric…
Decomposition of the solvable Lie algebras of maximal supergravities in D=4, 5 and 6 indicates, at least at the geometrical level, the existence of an N=(4,2) chiral supergravity theory in D=6 dimensions. This theory, with 24 supercharges,…
In this thesis we study several problems in the context of AdS/CFT. The first is that of gravitational phase transitions between AdS and dS geometries in the Gauss-Bonnet theory of gravity. Such transitions are mediated by thermalons and do…
We calculate the conformal anomaly from 5d Weyl gravity (with broken conformal symmetry) which is conjectured to be supergravity dual to ${\cal N}=2$ superconformal field theory via AdS/CFT correspondence. Its comparison with ${\cal N}=2$…