paper

The Large N Limit of Superconformal Field Theories and Supergravity

arXiv:hep-th/9711200 · doi:10.1023/A:1026654312961

Abstract

We show that the large limit of certain conformal field theories in various dimensions include in their Hilbert space a sector describing supergravity on the product of Anti-deSitter spacetimes, spheres and other compact manifolds. This is shown by taking some branes in the full M/string theory and then taking a low energy limit where the field theory on the brane decouples from the bulk. We observe that, in this limit, we can still trust the near horizon geometry for large . The enhanced supersymmetries of the near horizon geometry correspond to the extra supersymmetry generators present in the superconformal group (as opposed to just the super-Poincare group). The 't Hooft limit of 4-d super-Yang-Mills at the conformal point is shown to contain strings: they are IIB strings. We conjecture that compactifications of M/string theory on various Anti-deSitter spacetimes are dual to various conformal field theories. This leads to a new proposal for a definition of M-theory which could be extended to include five non-compact dimensions.

20 pages, harvmac, v2: section on AdS_2 corrected, references added, v3: More references and a sign in eqns 2.8 and 2.9 corrected

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