The ABC of Higher-Spin AdS/CFT

Abstract

In recent literature one-loop tests of the higher-spin AdS$_{d+1}$/CFT$_d$ correspondences were carried out. Here we extend these results to a more general set of theories in $d>2$. First, we consider the Type B higher spin theories, which have been conjectured to be dual to CFTs consisting of the singlet sector of $N$ free fermion fields. In addition to the case of $N$ Dirac fermions, we carefully study the projections to Weyl, Majorana, symplectic, and Majorana-Weyl fermions in the dimensions where they exist. Second, we explore theories involving elements of both Type A and Type B theories, which we call Type AB. Their spectrum includes fields of every half-integer spin, and they are expected to be related to the $U(N)/O(N)$ singlet sector of the CFT of $N$ free complex/real scalar and fermionic fields. Finally, we explore the Type C theories, which have been conjectured to be dual to the CFTs of $p$-form gauge fields, where $p=\frac d 2 -1$. In most cases we find that the free energies at $O(N^0)$ either vanish or give contributions proportional to the free-energy of a single free field in the conjectured dual CFT. Interpreting these non-vanishing values as shifts of the bulk coupling constant $G_N\sim 1/(N-k)$, we find the values $k=-1, -1/2, 0, 1/2, 1, 2$. Exceptions to this rule are the Type B and AB theories in odd $d$; for them we find a mismatch between the bulk and boundary free energies that has a simple structure, but does not follow from a simple shift of the bulk coupling constant.