The Regge limit of AdS3 holographic correlators with heavy states: towards the black hole regime

We examine the Regge limit of holographic 4-point correlation functions in AdS3× S3 involving two heavy and two light operators. In this kinematic regime such correlators can be reconstructed from the bulk phase shift accumulated by the light probe as it traverses the geometry dual to the heavy operator. We work perturbatively — but to arbitrary orders — in the ratio of the heavy operator’s conformal dimension to the dual CFT2’s central charge, thus going beyond the low order results of [1] and [2]. In doing so, we derive all-order relations between the bulk phase shift and the Regge limit OPE data of a class of heavy-light multi-trace operators exchanged in the cross-channel. Furthermore, we analyse two examples for which the relevant 4-point correlators are known explicitly to all orders: firstly the case of heavy operators dual to AdS3 conical defect geometries and secondly the case of non-trivial smooth geometries representing microstates of the two-charge D1-D5 black hole.

Model-dependence of minimal-twist OPEs in d > 2 holographic CFTs

Following recent work on heavy-light correlators in higher-dimensional conformal field theories (CFTs) with a large central charge CT, we clarify the properties of stress tensor composite primary operators of minimal twist, [Tm], using arguments in both CFT and gravity. We provide an efficient proof that the three-point coupling $$ \left\langle {\mathcal{O}}_L{\mathcal{O}}_L\left[{T}^m\right]\right\rangle $$ O L O L T m , where $$ {\mathcal{O}}_L $$ O L is any light primary operator, is independent of the purely gravitational action. Next, we consider corrections to this coupling due to additional interactions in AdS effective field theory and the corresponding dual CFT. When the CFT contains a non-zero three-point coupling $$ \left\langle TT{\mathcal{O}}_L\right\rangle $$ TT O L , the three-point coupling $$ \left\langle {\mathcal{O}}_L{\mathcal{O}}_L\left[{T}^2\right]\right\rangle $$ O L O L T 2 is modified at large CT if $$ \left\langle TT{\mathcal{O}}_L\right\rangle \sim \sqrt{C_T} $$ TT O L ∼ C T . This scaling is obeyed by the dilaton, by Kaluza-Klein modes of prototypical supergravity compactifications, and by scalars in stress tensor multiplets of supersymmetric CFTs. Quartic derivative interactions involving the graviton and the light probe field dual to $$ {\mathcal{O}}_L $$ O L can also modify the minimal-twist couplings; these local interactions may be generated by integrating out a spin-ℓ ≥ 2 bulk field at tree level, or any spin ℓ at loop level. These results show how the minimal-twist OPE coefficients can depend on the higher-spin gap scale, even perturbatively.