Elliptic Genera and 3d Gravity

Abstract

We describe general constraints on the elliptic genus of a 2d supersymmetric conformal field theory which has a gravity dual with large radius in Planck units. We give examples of theories which do and do not satisfy the bounds we derive, by describing the elliptic genera of symmetric product orbifolds of K3, product manifolds, certain simple families of Calabi–Yau hypersurfaces, and symmetric products of the “Monster CFT”. We discuss the distinction between theories with supergravity duals and those whose duals have strings at the scale set by the AdS curvature. Under natural assumptions, we attempt to quantify the fraction of (2,2) supersymmetric conformal theories which admit a weakly curved gravity description, at large central charge.