Universal Features of Holographic Anomalies

TL;DR

This paper investigates how gravitational actions encode trace anomalies in holographically related conformal field theories, revealing universal ratios and action-dependent normalizations of anomalies across dimensions.

Contribution

It uncovers universal features of holographic trace anomalies, showing ratio independence from gravitational actions and fixed dimension-dependent normalizations.

Findings

Ratios of type B anomalies are universal and action-independent.

Normalization of type A anomalies is action-dependent.

Overall normalization of type B anomalies is fixed by dimension.

Abstract

We study the mechanism by which gravitational actions reproduce the trace anomalies of the holographically related conformal field theories. Two universal features emerge: a) the ratios of type B trace anomalies in any even dimension are independent of the gravitational action, being uniquely determined by the underlying algebraic structure b) the normalization of the type A and the overall normalization of the type B anomalies are given by action dependent expressions with the dimension dependence completely fixed.