Holographic probes of anti–de Sitter spacetimes

Abstract

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.