Twisted holography and twistor strings

• Grant number: 24/12765-6
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Young Investigators Grants
• Start date: December 01, 2024
• End date: November 30, 2029
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Physics - Elementary Particle Physics and Fields
• Principal Investigator: Eduardo Tremea Casali
• Grantee: Eduardo Tremea Casali
• Host Institution: Instituto de Física (IF). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 24/20717-1 - Twisted holography and twistor strings, BP.MS

Abstract

The fact that quantum gravity is holographic is one of the deepest results of the last few decades in theoretical physics. The most successful realization comes in the form of the AdS/CFT duality. It states that a gravitational theory in an asymptotically Anti-de Sitter space and a conformal field theory defined on its boundary are equivalent descriptions of the same physical system. The AdS/CFT duality has its origins in a string theory duality between open and closed strings. The theories involved in the duality can be challenging to work with, or be difficult to even define along all the regimes of validity of the duality.Simpler models that nonetheless capture the important aspects of holographic dualities can be obtained from more exotic topological strings. Open-closed dualities in these string theories imply a duality between topological-holomorphic theories in the target space, dubbed twisted holography, that, in many cases, correspond to sub-sectors of the original theories related by AdS/CFT. This can lead to simplifications for computations of certain observables in AdS/CFT, but twisted holography can be applied more generally, relating theories which have no origin from AdS/CFT.Moreover, when these string theories are defined on twistor space they lead to novel holographic dualities for asymptotically flat spacetimes. Twistor spaces are non-locally related to spacetime but are intimately connected to its causal structure. Exploring this connection leads to holomorphic theories on twistor space being related to common field theories on spacetime. Leveraging string theory on twistor gives the first realizations of what has been called celestial holography, where gravitational theories on asymptotically flat spacetimes are dual to CFTs on the celestial sphere at null infinity. (AU)