\(p\)-adic AdS/CFT (Q529630)

AdS/CFT famously provides a duality between a bulk gravitational theory and a boundary gauge theory. Quantum gravity (on anti-de Sitter space) is hence formulated as a conventional quantum field theory (i.e. one not including a fundamental graviton) in one dimensional lower. In this paper, a discrete version of this duality is proposed, and first steps are taken towards computation within this framework. The basic idea is to formulate the theory over the \(p\)-adic numbers. AdS space is replaced by the Bruhat-Tits tree. Roughly speaking, vertices of this tree (points in the interior of AdS) correspond to approximations to \(p\)-adic numbers, while the numbers themselves correspond to paths along the tree and can be identified with the boundary. Bulk integration maps to an appropriate discrete sum over the vertices of the tree. The paper works out bulk-to-boundary and bulk-to-bulk propagators in this framework, as well as the two- and three-point functions of a massive scalar in the bulk. Steps are taken to define higher point functions. The formalism yields results which resemble those of the conventional (Archimedean) theory, but a precise map between the two is still lacking. Directions for future work include identifying an analogue of the conformal algebra on the boundary, or moving beyond (the analogue) of classical computations in the bulk.