ABJ Theory in the Higher Spin Limit

Abstract

We study the conjecture made by Chang, Minwalla, Sharma, and Yin on the duality between the N=6 Vasiliev higher spin theory on AdS_4 and the N=6 Chern-Simons-matter theory, so-called ABJ theory, with gauge group U(N) x U(N+M). Building on our earlier results on the ABJ partition function, we develop the systematic 1/M expansion, corresponding to the weak coupling expansion in the higher spin theory, and compare the leading 1/M correction, with our proposed prescription, to the one-loop free energy of the N=6 Vasiliev theory. We find an agreement between the two sides up to an ambiguity that appears in the bulk one-loop calculation.