Nearing the Horizon of a Heterotic String

TL;DR

This paper proposes a holographic dual for the 2D CFT on heterotic strings, revealing a supergroup structure and exact worldsheet CFT description, advancing understanding of heterotic string compactifications.

Contribution

It identifies a specific AdS_3 x S^2 x T^5 holographic dual and describes its supergroup symmetry and worldsheet CFT, providing new insights into heterotic string theory.

Findings

Holographic dual is AdS_3 x S^2 x T^5 for heterotic strings.

Supergroup symmetry is Osp(4^*|4) with 16 supercharges.

Exact worldsheet CFT description is established.

Abstract

It is argued that recent developments point to the existence of an AdS_3 x S^2 x T^5 holographic dual for the 2D CFT living on the worldsheet of N coincident heterotic strings in a T^5 compactification, which can in turn be described by an exact worldsheet CFT. A supergravity analysis is shown to imply that the global supergroup is Osp(4^*|4), with 16 supercharges and an affine extension given, surprisingly, by a nonlinear N=8 2D superconformal algebra. Possible supergroups with 16 supercharges are also found to match the expected symmetries for T^n compactification with 0<=n<=7.