Polyakov action

Abstract: Using the relation between diffeomorphisms in the bulk and Weyl transformations on the boundary, we study the Weyl transformation properties of the bulk metric on-shell and of the boundary action. We obtain a universal formula for one of the classes of trace anomalies in any even dimension in terms of the parameters of the gravity action.

Abstract: We formulate Nielsen's geometric approach to circuit complexity in the context of two-dimensional conformal field theories, where series of conformal transformations are interpreted as ``unitary circuits'' built from energy-momentum tensor gates. We show that the complexity functional in this setup can be written as the Polyakov action of two-dimensional gravity or, equivalently, as the geometric action on the coadjoint orbits of the Virasoro group. This way, we argue that gravity sets the rules for optimal quantum computation in conformal field theories.

Abstract: Using target space null reduction of the Polyakov action, we find a novel covariant action for strings moving in a torsional Newton-Cartan geometry. Sending the string tension to zero while rescaling the Newton-Cartan clock 1-form, so as to keep the string action finite, we obtain a nonrelativistic string moving in a new type of non-Lorentzian geometry that we call U(1)-Galilean geometry. We apply this to strings on AdS5×S5 for which we show that the zero tension limit is realized by the spin matrix theory limits of the AdS/CFT correspondence. This is closely related to limits of spin chains studied in connection to integrability in AdS/CFT. The simplest example gives a covariant version of the Landau-Lifshitz sigma-model.

Abstract: The Nambu-Goldstone (NG) bosons of the SYK model are described by a coset space Diff/SL(2, ℝ), where Diff, or Virasoro group, is the group of diffeomorphisms of the time coordinate valued on the real line or a circle. It is known that the coadjoint orbit action of Diff naturally turns out to be the two-dimensional quantum gravity action of Polyakov without cosmological constant, in a certain gauge, in an asymptotically flat spacetime. Motivated by this observation, we explore Polyakov action with cosmological constant and boundary terms, and study the possibility of such a two-dimensional quantum gravity model being the AdS dual to the low energy (NG) sector of the SYK model. We find strong evidences for this duality: (a) the bulk action admits an exact family of asymptotically AdS2 spacetimes, parameterized by Diff/SL(2, ℝ), in addition to a fixed conformal factor of a simple functional form; (b) the bulk path integral reduces to a path integral over Diff/SL(2, ℝ) with a Schwarzian action; (c) the low temperature free energy qualitatively agrees with that of the SYK model. We show, up to quadratic order, how to couple an infinite series of bulk scalars to the Polyakov model and show that it reproduces the coupling of the higher modes of the SYK model with the NG bosons.