Dual Gravitons in AdS4/CFT3 and the Holographic Cotton Tensor

TL;DR

This paper explores dual descriptions of gravity in AdS4, revealing a holographic duality between two 3D CFTs connected via a gravitational Legendre transformation, involving the Cotton tensor and topologically massive gravity.

Contribution

It introduces a duality framework for AdS4 gravity involving dual gravitons and Cotton tensors, extending the holographic correspondence beyond linear approximation.

Findings

Dual CFTs are related by a gravitational Legendre transformation.

The Cotton tensor acts as a dual stress-energy tensor in the holographic dual.

The duality applies at any radius and involves topologically massive gravity.

Abstract

We argue that gravity theories in AdS4 are holographically dual to either of two three-dimensional CFT's: the usual Dirichlet CFT1 where the fixed graviton acts as a source for the stress-energy tensor, and a dual CFT2 with a fixed dual graviton which acts as a source for a dual stress-energy tensor. The dual stress-energy tensor is shown to be the Cotton tensor of the Dirichlet CFT. The two CFT's are related by a Legendre transformation generated by a gravitational Chern-Simons coupling. This duality is a gravitational version of electric-magnetic duality valid at any radius r, where the renormalized stress-energy tensor is the electric field and the Cotton tensor is the magnetic field. Generic Robin boundary conditions lead to CFT's coupled to Cotton gravity or topologically massive gravity. Interaction terms with CFT1 lead to a non-zero vev of the stress-energy tensor in CFT2 coupled to gravity even after the source is removed. We point out that the dual graviton also exists beyond the linearized approximation, and spell out some of the details of the non-linear construction.