A note on quantum supergravity and AdS/CFT

Abstract

We note that the non-perturbative quantisation of supergravity as recently investigated using loop quantum gravity techniques provides an opportunity to probe an interesting sector of the AdS/CFT correspondence, which is usually not considered in conventional treatments. In particular, assuming a certain amount of convergence between the quantum supergravity sector of string theory and quantum supergravity constructed via loop quantum gravity techniques, we argue that the large quantum number expansion in loop quantum supergravity corresponds to the $1/N^2_c$ expansion in the corresponding gauge theory. In order to argue that we are indeed dealing with an appropriate quantum supergravity sector of string theory, high energy ($\alpha'$) corrections are being neglected, leading to a gauge theory at strong coupling, yet finite $N_c$. The arguments given in this paper are mainly of qualitative nature, with the aim of serving as a starting point for a more in depth interaction between the string theory and loop quantum gravity communities.