No escape: light waves in AdS

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Abstract/Contents

Abstract: The AdS/CFT correspondence represents a major advance in our understanding of string theory and quantum gravity. It provides a powerful toolkit for studying strongly coupled quantum field theories and understanding quantum gravity. To apply this framework effectively, it is important to understand AdS in the context of string theory. Calculations involving string theory in AdS rely heavily on the assumption that light starting from the center of Anti-de Sitter (AdS) cannot reach its boundary. However, it can be shown that light, if it follows null geodesics, will reach the boundary and then come back to the origin in finite time. How can we resolve this tension? This work proposes a simple resolution that involves modeling light as a massless scalar field instead of as rays. Using this new representation and applying some scattering theory, we show that light in AdS cannot be modelled as rays due to diffraction caused by the curvature of the spacetime. In other words, as the light wave travels up the gravitational potential of AdS, it is redshifted and its wavelength increases, which renders the geometric optics approximation inadequate after some finite distance. We then show how this implies that light does not reach the boundary of AdS.

Type of resource	text
Date created	May 16, 2018

Author	Mendoza, Ismael
Primary advisor	Silverstein, Eva
Advisor	Brown, Adam
Advisor	Scherlis, Adam
Degree granting institution	Stanford University, Department of Physics

Subject	Stanford Institute of Theoretical Physics
Subject	SITP
Subject	AdS
Subject	General Relativity
Subject	Klein-Gordon Equation
Subject	light waves
Subject	scalar fields
Subject	gravity
Genre	Thesis

Location	https://purl.stanford.edu/vf208qp2190

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License: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).

Preferred Citation: Mendoza, Ismael. No escape: light waves in AdS. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at: https://purl.stanford.edu/vf208qp2190

Undergraduate Theses, Department of Physics

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