Warped compactifications and holographic duality

Abstract

We review warped compactifications of superstring theory with some attention to the limit in which these resemble "bottom-up" phenomenological models. In addition to some discussion of the original Klebanov-Witten and Klebanov-Strassler set-ups, we also touch on various generalizations of the geometry that have been considered. Various other systems with a holographic duality are also briefly reviewed. The point of this latter exploration is to illustrate how far beyond the standard AdS(5) x S(5) set-up things have moved over the years.