Infinite-dimensional symmetries in plane wave spacetimes

2025/08/18 by Despontin, Emilie, Detournay, Stéphane, Fontaine, Dima
#FOS: Physical sciences #High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th)

paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2508.12760

Abstract

We study the asymptotic symmetries of the Nappi-Witten spacetime in four dimensions, a plane wave arising as the Penrose limit of AdS₂× S². Imposing suitable boundary conditions at large transverse distance, we uncover a new infinite-dimensional symmetry algebra allowing for non-trivial central extensions. The corresponding phase space encompasses the most general four-dimensional pp-wave metric, including in particular the Penrose limit of Kerr black holes.

Citations

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