Holographic renormalization group flows: The view from ten dimensions (Q2761998)

The author considers supersymmetric flows generated by mass perturbations and special vevs in \(N=4\) Yang-Mills theory, and in particular is focused on the infrared structure suggested by the dual supergravity solutions. One of the primary purposes of this paper is to show that the proper physical interpretation of the supergravity solutions requires that one finds their ten-dimensional counterparts. In the conclusions the author write that (a) five-dimensional supergravity methods are very powerful in generating exact solutions, whereas competing ten-dimensional approaches usually have to resort to linear approximations; (b) five-dimensional methods have led to significant insights into holographic field theory; (c) five-dimensional methods have limitations: there are restrictions on the families of solutions, and there is the ``myopia'' of the five-dimensional perspective. The work described in this paper illustrates a rather more general cautionary tale: to properly interpret a flow involving brane-world physics one must embed the branes in the full, parent string theory.