The Exact Renormalization Group and Higher-spin Holography

TL;DR

This paper explores the connection between the exact renormalization group equations of scalar field theories with $U(N)$ symmetry and higher-spin holography, revealing how RG flows can be interpreted as higher-spin equations in an emergent higher-dimensional geometry.

Contribution

It demonstrates that RG equations can be formulated as higher-spin equations of motion in an emergent AdS space, providing a geometric interpretation of the RG flow and extending to non-relativistic theories.

Findings

RG equations as Hamilton equations in $AdS_{d+1}$

Emergence of higher-spin equations from RG flows

Construction of higher-spin theories in Schrödinger space

Abstract

In this paper, we revisit scalar field theories in $d$ space-time dimensions possessing $U(N)$ global symmetry. Following our recent work arXiv:1402.1430v2, we consider the generating function of correlation functions of all $U(N)$-invariant, single-trace operators at the free fixed point. The exact renormalization group equations are cast as Hamilton equations of radial evolution in a model space-time of one higher dimension, in this case $AdS_{d+1}$. The geometry associated with the RG equations is seen to emerge naturally out of the infinite jet bundle corresponding to the field theory, and suggests their interpretation as higher-spin equations of motion. While the higher-spin equations we obtain are remarkably simple, they are non-local in an essential way. Nevertheless, solving these bulk equations of motion in terms of a boundary source, we derive the on-shell action and demonstrate that it correctly encodes all of the correlation functions of the field theory, written as `Witten diagrams'. Since the model space-time has the isometries of the fixed point, it is possible to construct new higher spin theories defined in terms of geometric structures over other model space-times. We illustrate this by explicitly constructing the higher spin RG equations corresponding to the $z=2$ non-relativistic free field theory in $D$ spatial dimensions. In this case, the model space-time is the Schr\"odinger space-time, $Schr_{D+3}$.