1998/08/12 by Vijay Balasubramanian, Per Kraus, Albion Lawrence +2 · 20 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Noncommutative and Quantum Gravity Theories #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.59.104021
published as Phys.Rev. D59 (1999) 104021 · 28 pages, LaTex. References added
arxiv created 1998/08/12 · openalex publication_date 1999/04/26 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We describe probes of anti--de Sitter spacetimes in terms of conformal field theories on the AdS boundary. Our basic tool is a formula that relates bulk and boundary states---classical bulk field configurations are dual to expectation values of operators on the boundary. At the quantum level we relate the operator expansions of bulk and boundary fields. Using our methods, we discuss the CFT description of local bulk probes including normalizable wave packets, fundamental and D-strings, and D-instantons. Radial motions of probes in the bulk spacetime are related to motions in scale on the boundary, demonstrating a scale-radius duality. We discuss the implications of these results for the holographic description of black hole horizons in the boundary field theory.