Stringy gravity, interacting tensionless strings and massless higher spins

TL;DR

This work investigates short-distance string dynamics through a strong version of AdS/CFT, focusing on ${\cal N}=4$ SYM in $AdS_{5} \times S^{5}$ to illuminate interacting tensionless strings and massless higher-spin fields. By mapping IIB string theory to free gauge theory at finite $N$, the authors show how tensionless strings emerge as a string-bit picture in the CFT, with higher-spin currents dual to massless AdS fields and massive states arising with nonzero tension. They employ Polya counting to reveal a Hawking-Page–type phase transition persisting in the extreme string limit, and discuss a spectrum that includes massless spin-2 and other higher-spin fields whose interactions may align with Vasiliev-type theories, albeit without a complete Lagrangian. The findings suggest a finite, large-$N$ framework where black-hole–like bound states and nonperturbative structures arise, offering a bridge between gauge theory combinatorics and quantum gravity in AdS.

Abstract

Consequences of a strong version of the AdS/CFT correspondence for extremely stringy physics are examined. In particular, properties of N = 4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory are used to extract results about interacting tensionless strings and massless higher spin fields in an AdS_5 x S^5 background. Furthermore, the thermodynamics of this model signals the presence of a Hawking-Page phase transition between AdS_5 space and a "black hole"-like high temperature configuration even in the extreme string limit.