The Bulk Dual of SYK: Cubic Couplings

Abstract

The SYK model, a quantum mechanical model of $N \gg 1$ Majorana fermions $\chi_i$, with a $q$-body, random interaction, is a novel realization of holography. It is known that the AdS$_2$ dual contains a tower of massive particles, yet there is at present no proposal for the bulk theory. As SYK is solvable in the $1/N$ expansion, one can systematically derive the bulk. We initiate such a program, by analyzing the fermion two, four and six-point functions, from which we extract the tower of singlet, large $N$ dominant, operators, their dimensions, and their three-point correlation functions. These determine the masses of the bulk fields and their cubic couplings. We present these couplings, analyze their structure and discuss the simplifications that arise for large $q$.