Title: Some recent developments of higher-spin holography

Speaker: Dr. Wei Li (Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics)

Time: 15:30, Apr. 18, 2014 (Fri.)

Place: 319 conference hall, Theoretical Physics Division

Abstract:

Vasiliev's higher-spin theory is a generalization of Einstein's gravity theory. The diffeomorphism is extended to include higher-spin gauge symmetries, which soften the UV divergence of ordinary quantum gravity. The holographic dual of a higher-spin theory in AdS is a CFT with higher-spin currents. This holography is a weak/weak duality, and is related to a tensionless limit of string theory.

In the first part of talk the speaker will review higher spin theory and its holographic duals. In the second part the speaker will discuss three topics in three-dimensions: modular behavior, 1/N correction, and higher-spin theory in higher-genus handle-bodies.