AdS3/AdS2 Degression of Massless Particles

Abstract We study a 3d/2d dimensional degression which is a Kaluza-Klein type mechanism in AdS3 space foliated into AdS2 hypersurfaces. It is shown that an AdS3 massless particle of spin s = 1, 2, …, ∞ degresses into a couple of AdS2 particles of equal energies E = s. Note that the Kaluza-Klein spectra in higher dimensions are always infinite. To formulate the AdS3/AdS2 degression we consider branching rules for AdS3 isometry algebra o(2,2) representations decomposed with respect to AdS2 isometry algebra o(1,2). We find that a given o(2,2) higher-spin representation lying on the unitary bound (i.e. massless) decomposes into two equal o(1,2) modules. In the field-theoretical terms, this phenomenon is demonstrated for spin-2 and spin-3 free massless fields. The truncation to a finite spectrum can be seen by using particular mode expansions, (partial) diagonalizations, and identities specific to two dimensions.