Strings in homogeneous gravitational waves and null holography

Abstract

Homogeneous gravitational wave backgrounds arise as infinite momentum limits of many geometries with a well-understood holographic description. General global aspects of these geometries are discussed. Using exact CFT techniques, strings in pp-wave backgrounds supported by a Neveu-Schwarz flux are quantized. As in Euclidean $Ad{S}_3$, spectral flow and associated long strings are shown to be crucial in obtaining a complete spectrum. Holography is investigated using conformally flat coordinates analogous to those of the Poincaré patch in AdS. It is argued that the holographic direction is the light-cone coordinate $u$, and that the holographic degrees of freedom live on a codimension-one screen at fixed $u$. The usual conformal symmetry on the boundary is replaced by a representation of a Heisenberg-type algebra $H_D\times H_D$, hinting at a new class of field theories realizing this symmetry. A sample holographic computation of 2 and 3-point functions is provided and Ward identities are derived. A complementary screen at fixed $v$ is argued to be necessary in order to encode the vacuum structure.

47 pages, 1 figure, Latex2e, JHEP3.cls; v3: global restructuration, sec 3.4, note and appendix E added, final version to appear in JHEP

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• Modular Invariance of Strings on PP-Waves with RR-flux
• Penrose Limits, Deformed pp-Waves and the String Duals of N=1 Large n Gauge Theory
• Closed Timelike Curves and Holography in Compact Plane Waves
• Penrose Limits and Non-local theories
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• Gauge theory description of compactified pp-waves
• Removing Singularities
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• Classical and Quantum Strings in compactified pp-waves and Godel type Universes
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• Relativistic String in a Pulse
• Closed Strings in Misner Space: Stringy Fuzziness with a Twist
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• Boundary States for D-branes with Traveling Waves
• Supersymmetric D3 brane and N=4 SYM actions in plane wave backgrounds
• Strings in an electric field, and the Milne Universe
• Spectra of PP-Wave Limits of M-/Superstring Theory on AdS_p x S^q Spaces
• PP-wave string interactions from n-point correlators of BMN operators
• Orbifolds, Penrose Limits and Supersymmetry Enhancement
• Noncommutative Field Theory on Homogeneous Gravitational Waves
• Penrose limit and NCYM theories in diverse dimensions
• The abelian cosets of the Heisenberg group
• Superstring Vacua of 4-dimensional PP-Waves with Enhanced Supersymmetry
• A note on string interaction on the pp-wave background
• One Loop Partition Function in Plane Waves R-R Background
• Conformal boundary and geodesics for $Ad{S}_5\times S^5$ and the plane wave: Their approach in the Penrose limit
• Type IIB Colliding Plane Waves
• PP-waves from Nonlocal Theories
• The diagonal cosets of the Heisenberg group
• More on Penrose limits and non-local theories
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• Isometric Embeddings and Noncommutative Branes in Homogeneous Gravitational Waves
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• A Comment on Masses, Quantum Affine Symmetries and PP-Wave Backgrounds
• Brane Solutions with/without Rotation in PP-wave Spacetime
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• Semiclassical Strings Probing NS5 Brane Wrapped on S^5
• Cubic interactions in the BMN limit of AdS(3) x S(3)
• The exact description of NS5-branes in the Penrose limit
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• String Theory in the Penrose Limit of AdS_2 x S^2
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• Gravitational waves from WZW models
• Comments on the scalar propagator in AdS x S and the BMN plane wave