80 citations · 180 across the 15 of their papers we have counts for
17 papers
What's the Matter with 3D Gravity?
Robert Bourne, Jackson R. Fliss, Bob Knighton
We revisit the problem of minimally coupling matter to Einstein gravity in three dimensions with negative cosmological constant. By working in the worldline formalism, we construct…
A superspace approach to AdS string theory
Bob Knighton, Nathan McStay, Vit Sriprachyakul
We carefully examine the Polyakov path integral for strings on in superspace, both for type II and heterotic superstrings. We construct a free-field realization of t…
A spool for every quotient: One-loop partition functions in AdS gravity
Robert Bourne, Jackson R. Fliss, Bob Knighton
The Wilson spool is a prescription for expressing one-loop determinants as topological line operators in three-dimensional gravity. We extend this program to describe massive spinn…
Deriving the long-string CFT in AdS
Bob Knighton
We revisit the path integral formulation of bosonic string theory in locally-AdS spacetimes. Through a careful analysis of the worldsheet sigma model, we write down an effectiv…
Tensionless AdS/CFT and Single Trace
Andrea Dei, Bob Knighton, Kiarash Naderi +1
One of the few cases of AdS/CFT where both sides of the duality are under good control relates tensionless strings on AdS to a two-dimensional symmetric product CFT. Buil…
Topological defects and tensionless holography
Bob Knighton, Vit Sriprachyakul, Jakub Vošmera
We study topological defect lines in the symmetric-product orbifolds for a generic seed CFT . We focus on the defects which preserve the maximum of the …
A note on background independence in string theory
Bob Knighton
In this note, we comment on the path integral formulation of string theory on where is any hyperbolic 3-manifold. In t…
Unravelling AdS/CFT near the boundary
Bob Knighton, Vit Sriprachyakul
We study correlation functions of spectrally-flowed vertex operators in bosonic string theory on in the path integral formalism. By restricting the path inte…
Exact approaches on the string worldsheet
Saskia Demulder, Sibylle Driezen, Bob Knighton +5
We review different exact approaches to string theory. In the context of the Green-Schwarz superstring, we discuss the action in curved backgrounds and its supercoset formulation,…
Solving AdS string theory at minimal tension: tree-level correlators
Andrea Dei, Bob Knighton, Kiarash Naderi
We revisit the minimal tension () string theory on . We propose a new free-field description of the worldsheet theory and show…
Spectral flow and localisation in string theory
Bob Knighton, Sean Seet, Vit Sriprachyakul
We study string theory in three-dimensional Anti-de Sitter spacetime in the path integral formalism. We derive expressions for generic spectrally-flowed near-boundary vertex operat…
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wormhole: Ensemble averaging the symmetric product orbifold
Joshua Kames-King, Alexandros Kanargias, Bob Knighton +1
We consider the ensemble average of two dimensional symmetric product orbifold CFTs over the Narain moduli space. We argue for a bulk dual given by …
Classical geometry from the tensionless string
Bob Knighton
Tensionless string theory on is explored in the limit that the strings wind the asymptotic boundary a large number of times. Althoug…
D-branes in at and their holographic duals
Matthias R. Gaberdiel, Bob Knighton, Jakub Vošmera
String theory on with minimal NS-NS flux can be described in terms of a free field worldsheet theory in the hybrid formalis…
Higher genus correlators for tensionless strings
Bob Knighton
It was recently shown in arXiv:2009.11306 that tree-level correlation functions in tensionless string theory on match the expected form…
From Symmetric Product CFTs to
Matthias R. Gaberdiel, Rajesh Gopakumar, Bob Knighton +1
Correlators in symmetric orbifold CFTs are given by a finite sum of admissible branched covers of the 2d spacetime. We consider a Gross-Mende like limit where all operators have la…
Free field world-sheet correlators for
Andrea Dei, Matthias R. Gaberdiel, Rajesh Gopakumar +1
We employ the free field realisation of the world-sheet theory to constrain the correlators of string theory on ${\rm AdS}_3\times {\rm S}^3\times \mathbb…