Celestial holography and twistor theory

The holographic principle postulates that gravitational quantum field theories are described by non-gravitational theories in a lower number of dimensions.

The most precise formulation of holography is for asymptotically anti-de Sitter spacetimes, in the guise of the well-studied AdS/CFT correspondence.

However, for the more physically relevant setting of asymptotically flat spacetimes, a similar level of progress on realizing holography is lacking.

Recently, a new approach to asymptotically flat holography has emerged aimed at formulating the holographic dual to bulk theories in terms of conformal field theories on the celestial sphere of null directions.

Algebro-geometric methods from twistor theory have proven remarkably powerful in the development of this 'celestial holography,' providing derivations of CFT data for the dual theory and underpinning top-down constructions. This project will pursue new results in celestial holography using twistor techniques.

Specific research targets are: dynamically generating celestial CFT data at tree-level and beyond; providing concrete examples of celestial holography in curved, asymptotically flat spacetimes; exploiting connections between twisted holography and twistors to give physically relevant top-down models of celestial holography.