Geodesic Diagrams, Gravitational Interactions & OPE Structures

Abstract

We give a systematic procedure to evaluate conformal partial waves involving symmetric tensors for an arbitrary CFT$_d$ using geodesic Witten diagrams in AdS$_{d+1}$. Using this procedure we discuss how to draw a line between the tensor structures in the CFT and cubic interactions in AdS. We contrast this map to known results using three-point Witten diagrams: the maps obtained via volume versus geodesic integrals differ. Despite these differences, we show how to decompose four-point exchange Witten diagrams in terms of geodesic diagrams, and we discuss the product expansion of local bulk fields in AdS.