Holographic GB gravity in arbitrary dimensions

TL;DR

This paper explores the holographic duality between Gauss-Bonnet gravity in higher dimensions and conformal field theories, establishing the dictionary between gravitational couplings and CFT correlators, and analyzing physical constraints like causality and energy flux.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of the holographic correspondence in arbitrary dimensions, relating gravitational couplings to CFT data and examining causality and energy conditions.

Findings

Constraints on gravitational couplings from positive energy fluxes

Relations between Gauss-Bonnet couplings and stress tensor correlators

Causality bounds from second-order hydrodynamics

Abstract

We study the properties of the holographic CFT dual to Gauss-Bonnet gravity in general $D \ge 5$ dimensions. We establish the AdS/CFT dictionary and in particular relate the couplings of the gravitational theory to the universal couplings arising in correlators of the stress tensor of the dual CFT. This allows us to examine constraints on the gravitational couplings by demanding consistency of the CFT. In particular, one can demand positive energy fluxes in scattering processes or the causal propagation of fluctuations. We also examine the holographic hydrodynamics, commenting on the shear viscosity as well as the relaxation time. The latter allows us to consider causality constraints arising from the second-order truncated theory of hydrodynamics.