Cutoff AdS3 versus the TT¯ deformation

Abstract

A recent proposal relates two dimensional holographic conformal field theories deformed by the integrable TT¯ flow to AdS3 with a finite radial cutoff. We investigate this proposal by studying perturbative correlation functions on the two sides. For low point correlators of the stress tensor, we successfully match the deformed CFT results at large central charge to bulk results obtained in classical pure gravity. The deformed CFT also provides definite predictions for loop corrections in the bulk. We then include matter fields in the bulk. To reproduce the classical bulk two-point function of a scalar operator we show that the deformed CFT needs to be augmented with double trace scalar operators, with the TT¯ operator yielding corrections corresponding to loops in the bulk.