English

Unitarity Bounds in AdS_3 Higher Spin Gravity

High Energy Physics - Theory 2012-08-02 v3

Abstract

We study SL(N,R) Chern-Simons gauge theories in three dimensions. The choice of the embedding of SL(2,R) in SL(N,R), together with asymptotic boundary conditions, defines a theory of higher spin gravity. Each inequivalent embedding leads to a different asymptotic symmetry group, which we map to an OPE structure at the boundary. A simple inspection of these algebras indicates that only the W_N algebra constructed using the principal embedding could admit a unitary representation for large values of the central charge.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1202.4467,
  title  = {Unitarity Bounds in AdS_3 Higher Spin Gravity},
  author = {Alejandra Castro and Eliot Hijano and Arnaud Lepage-Jutier},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1202.4467},
  year   = {2012}
}

Comments

1+23 pages, Version 3 Appendix B revised

R2 v1 2026-06-21T20:22:29.512Z