Spectrum universality properties of holographic Chern-Simons theories

Abstract

We give a master formula for the spin-2 spectrum of a class of three-dimensional Chern-Simons theories at large N, with flavour group containing SU(3), that arise as infrared fixed points of the D2-brane worldvolume field theory and have AdS(4) duals in massive type IIA supergravity. We use this formula to compute the spin-2 spectrum of the individual theories, discuss its supermultiplet structure and, for an N = 2 theory in this class, the spectrum of protected operators with spin 2. We also show that the trace of the Kaluza-Klein graviton mass matrix on the dual AdS4 solutions enjoys certain universality properties. These are shown to relate the class of AdS4 massive IIA solutions under consideration to a similar class of AdS4 solutions of D = 11 supergravity with the same symmetries. Finally, for the N = 2 AdS4 solution in this class, we study the entire spectrum at lowest Kaluza-Klein level and relate it to an analogue solution in D = 11 supergravity. c The Authors.