Holographic thermal correlators revisited

We study 2-point correlation functions for scalar operators in position space through holography including bulk cubic couplings as well as higher curvature couplings to the square of the Weyl tensor. We focus on scalar operators with large conformal dimensions. This allows us to use the geodesic approximation for propagators. In addition to the leading order contribution, captured by geodesics anchored at the insertion points of the operators on the boundary and probing the bulk geometry thoroughly studied in the literature, the first correction is given by a Witten diagram involving both the bulk cubic coupling and the higher curvature couplings. As a result, this correction is proportional to the VEV of a neutral operator Ok and thus probes the interior of the black hole exactly as in the case studied by Grinberg and Maldacena [13]. The form of the correction matches the general expectations in CFT and allows to identify the contributions of TnOk (being Tn the general contraction of n energy-momentum tensors) to the 2-point function. This correction is actually the leading term for off-diagonal correlators (i.e. correlators for operators of different conformal dimension), which can then be computed holographically in this way.

BMS modular diaries: torus one-point function

Two dimensional field theories invariant under the Bondi-Metzner-Sachs (BMS) group are conjectured to be dual to asymptotically flat spacetimes in three dimensions. In this paper, we continue our investigations of the modular properties of these field theories. In particular, we focus on the BMS torus one-point function. We use two different methods to arrive at expressions for asymptotic structure constants for general states in the theory utilising modular properties of the torus one-point function. We then concentrate on the BMS highest weight representation, and derive a host of new results, the most important of which is the BMS torus block. In a particular limit of large weights, we derive the leading and sub-leading pieces of the BMS torus block, which we then use to rederive an expression for the asymptotic structure constants for BMS primaries. Finally, we perform a bulk computation of a probe scalar in the background of a flatspace cosmological solution based on the geodesic approximation to reproduce our field theoretic results.

Towards timelike singularity via AdS dual

It is well known that Kasner geometry with spacelike singularity can be extended to bulk AdS-like geometry, furthermore, one can study field theory on this Kasner space via its gravity dual. In this paper, we show that there exists a Kasner-like geometry with timelike singularity for which one can construct a dual gravity description. We then study various extremal surfaces including spacelike geodesics in the dual gravity description. Finally, we compute correlators of highly massive operators in the boundary field theory with a geodesic approximation.