High Energy Theory Seminar

This talk is divided into two parts, both concerning properties of conformal manifolds of local, unitary CFTs and their implications for quantum gravity in AdS via AdS/CFT. In the first part, I will discuss the absence of continuous global shift symmetries in AdS quantum gravity. Unlike more general global symmetries, such shift symmetries have a clear interpretation as a property of the conformal manifold on the CFT side. I will show that a conformal manifold of local, unitary CFTs cannot have this property, thereby excluding the presence of global shift symmetries in the AdS bulk. The second part focuses on infinite-distance limits in conformal manifolds and the CFT Distance Conjecture in more than two dimensions. Such infinite-distance limits are expected to correspond to tensionless string limits in the AdS bulk. I will test this expectation in the overall-free limit of certain classes of superconformal gauge theories. In particular, I will discuss how the large-N Hagedorn temperature of these theories appears to encode the type of string theory in which the AdS bulk is embedded.

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