Anti-de-Sitter Spacetime and Its Uses

Abstract

This is a pedagogic account of some of the global properties of Anti-de-Sitter spacetime with a view to their application to the AdS/CFT correspondence. Particular care is taken over the distinction between Anti-de-Sitter and it's covering space. Written version of lectures given at 2nd Samos Meeting held at at Pythagoreon, Samos, Greece, 31 August - 4 September 1998 and published as Anti-de-Sitter spacetime and its uses, in Mathematical and Quantum Aspects of Relativity and Cosmology. Proceedings of the 2nd Samos Meeting on Cosmology, Geometry and Relativity, S Cotsakis and G W Gibbons eds, {\it Lecture Notes in Physics}\, {\bf 537} (2000)}