On the Holographic Dual of a Symmetry Operator at Finite Temperature

Authors: Jonathan J. Heckman, Max Hübner, Chitraang Murdia

Pre-print: UUITP-10/25

Abstract: Topological symmetry operators of holographic large N CFTD's are dual to dynamical branes in the gravity dual AdSD+1. We use this correspondence to establish a dictionary between thermal expectation values of symmetry operators in the Euclidean CFTD and the evaluation of gravitational saddles in the presence of a dynamical brane. Expectation values of 0-form symmetry operators in the CFTD are then related to branes wrapped on volume minimizing cycles in the bulk, i.e., the Euclidean continuation of a black hole horizon. We illustrate with some representative examples, including gravity in AdS3, duality / triality defects in 4D =4Super Yang-Mills theory, and the dual of R-symmetry operators probing 5D BPS black holes.