Geometric aspects of the AdS/CFT correspondence

Abstract

We discuss classical gravitational aspects of the AdS/CFT correspondence, with the aim of obtaining a rigorous (mathematical) understanding of the semi-classical limit of the gravitational partition function. The paper surveys recent progress in the area, together with a selection of new results and open problems.

23pp, for Proceedings of the Strasbourg meeting on AdS/CFT, Sept. 03 v.2: references added, and minor changes made, especially to last section