On Locality, Holography and Unfolding

Abstract

We study the functional class and locality problems in the context of higher-spin theories and Vasiliev's equations. A locality criterion that is sufficient to make higher-spin theories well-defined as field theories on Anti-de-Sitter space is proposed. This criterion identifies admissible pseudo-local field redefinitions which preserve AdS/CFT correlation functions as we check in the 3d example. Implications of this analysis for known higher-spin theories are discussed. We also check that the cubic coupling coefficients previously fixed in 3d at the action level give the correct CFT correlation functions upon computing the corresponding Witten diagrams.