Related papers: New checks and subtleties for AdS/CFT and a-maximi…
A field theoretic understanding of how the radial direction in the AdS/CFT Correspondence plays the role of a gauge invariant measure of energy scale has long been missing. In SU(N) Yang-Mills, a realization of a gauge invariant cutoff has…
We use the conjectured strong-weak coupling worldsheet duality between the SL(2)/U(1) and Sine-Liouville conformal field theories to study some properties of degenerate operators and to compute correlation functions in CFT on AdS_3. The…
We propose an effective model of strongly coupled gauge theory at finite temperature on $R^3$ in the presence of an infrared cutoff. It is constructed by considering the theory on $S^3$ with an infrared cutoff and then taking the size of…
In this introductory review we discuss dynamical tests of the AdS_5 x S^5 string/N=4 super Yang-Mills duality. After a brief introduction to AdS/CFT we argue that semiclassical string energies yield information on the quantum spectrum of…
By leveraging the physics of the Higgs branch, we argue that the conformal central charges $a$ and $c$ of an arbitrary 4d $N=2$ superconformal field theory (SCFT) are rational numbers. Our proof of the rationality of $c$ is conditioned on a…
The large R-charge limit of two-point functions of chiral primary operators in rank-one N=2 superconformal field theories exhibits a universal behavior controlled by the effective field theory on their Coulomb branch. In the case of SU(2)…
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 AdS/CFT correspondence provides a rich testing ground for many important topics in theoretical physics. The earliest and most striking example of the correspondence is the conjectured duality between the energy spectrum of type IIB…
Type IIB AdS$_6$ solutions with orientifold 7-planes are constructed. The geometry is a warped product of AdS$_6$ and S$^2$ over a Riemann surface $\Sigma$ and the O7-planes correspond to a particular type of puncture on $\Sigma$. The…
We present a new one-parameter family of supersymmetric solutions deforming AdS_5. This is constructed as an asymptotically locally anti de Sitter (AlAdS) solution of five-dimensional minimal gauged supergravity, with topology R x R^4 and a…
We test the AdS/CFT correspondence in the case of a d=4 N=2 SCFT by comparing chiral anomalies which are of order N in the 't Hooft large N limit. These include corrections of order 1/N to the conformal anomaly, thus testing the…
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 note that the non-perturbative quantisation of supergravity as recently investigated using loop quantum gravity techniques provides an opportunity to probe an interesting sector of the AdS/CFT correspondence, which is usually not…
We study N=1 superconformal theories in four dimensions obtained wrapping M5 branes on a Riemann surface. We propose a method to determine from the spectral curve the scaling dimension of chiral operators in the SCFT. Whenever the…
We define a holographic dual to the Donaldson-Witten topological twist of $\mathcal{N}=2$ gauge theories on a Riemannian four-manifold. This is described by a class of asymptotically locally hyperbolic solutions to $\mathcal{N}=4$ gauged…
The past few years have witnessed a remarkable crossover of string theoretical ideas from the abstract world of geometrical forms to the concrete experimental realm of condensed matter physics. The basis for this --- variously known as…
We consider M-theory on AdS_4 x N^{0,1,0} where N^{0,1,0}= (SU(3) x SU(2))/(SU(2) x U(1)). We review a Penrose limit of AdS_4 x N^{0,1,0} that provides the pp-wave geometry of AdS_4 x S^7. There exists a subsector of three dimensional N=3…
We develop a consistent partially off-shell framework for evaluating higher-derivative actions of five-dimensional $\cal{N}=1$ gauged supergravity with abelian vector multiplets on AdS$_5$. Using the superconformal formalism, we show that…
The AdS/dCFT correspondence is used to show that a planar q-dimensional superconformal CFT defect expands, under the addition of electric charge and angular momentum, to a supersymmetric higher-dimensional defect of geometry R^q x C, where…
We construct a general class of (small) $\mathcal{N}=(0,4)$ superconformal solutions in M-theory of the form AdS$_3\times S^3/\mathbb{Z}_k\times \text{CY}_2$, foliated over an interval. These solutions describe M-strings in M5-brane…