CFT/AdS correspondence, massive gravitons, and a connectivity index conjecture

Abstract

We discuss the general question of which conformal field theories have dual descriptions in terms of quantum gravity theories on anti-de Sitter space. We analyze in detail the case of a deformed product of $n$ conformal field theories (each of which has a gravity dual), and we claim that the dual description of this is by a quantum gravity theory on a union of $n$ anti-de Sitter spaces, connected at their boundary (by correlations between their boundary conditions). On this union of spaces, ($n-1$) linear combinations of gravitons obtain a mass, and we compute this mass both from the field theory and from the gravity sides of the correspondence, finding the same result in both computations. This is the first example in which a graviton mass in the bulk of anti-de Sitter space arises continuously by varying parameters. The analysis of these deformed product theories leads us to suggest that field theories may be generally classified by a “connectivity index,” corresponding to the number of components (connected at the boundary) in the space-time of the dual gravitational background. In the field theory this index roughly counts the number of independent gauge groups, but we do not have a precise general formula for the index.