Flat Space Physics from AdS Actions

Abstract

Flat spacetimes are foliated by hyperbolic slices that are geometrically three-dimensional de Sitter or anti-de Sitter spaces. As such, it is possible to construct flat space holographic dualities by applying the AdS/CFT bulk-to-boundary dictionary slice by slice. In this work, we reduce 4D actions for massless scalars in both Minkowski space and Klein space and massive scalars in Minkowski space to actions on these 3D dS and AdS slices. In both Minkowski and Klein space, the reduced theories have a continuous spectrum of fields originating from the reduction over the noncompact $x^2$ direction. These actions are linked by boundary terms arising from field configurations discontinuous across the lightcone. In the massless case, different asymptotic limits of the reduced field near the boundary of the unit hyperbolic slice replicate either light cone or null infinity limits of the field; in the massive case, only one boundary mode of the reduced field has a simple geometric interpretation.