Holography and localization in fractional field theory

Abstract

Fractional field theory is a promising framework wherein to quantize the gravitational interaction but the presence of nonlocal operators can make its handling difficult. With the purpose of easing this problem, we recast the theory as a local dual in two ways. First, we generalize the Caffarelli--Silvestre extension theorem to self-adjoint fractional field theories with multi-scale kinetic terms and nonlocal interactions, taking the example of a scalar field. The latter is reinterpreted as a nonlocal boundary degree of freedom holographically dual to a local theory of two scalars living in a higher-dimensional bulk. However, inclusion of a local non-linear potential is not straightforward. We therefore propose an alternative picture where the nonlocal theory is not extended to a higher-dimensional space but is localized at the price of introducing a continuum of masses. This \emph{spectral localization} allows for a natural implementation of the fakeon prescription and the related classicization procedure, already employed in local theories with higher-derivative and complex ghosts. Applications to fractional quantum gravity and its comparison with quadratic quantum gravity are discussed.