HEP Theory Journal Club

Constraining Conformal Field Theories with W Symmetry

Kale Colville

McGill

We will examine two dimensional conformal field theories with a higher spin extension of the Virasoro algebra, known as a W algebra. Using quantum chaos we will argue that such theories are inconsistent at large values of the central charge. A second argument using unitarity will also be presented and a similar result will be obtained. Comments on the interpretation of this result in terms of the AdS/CFT correspondence will also be made.