Wang, Zhencheng

Gravitating spinning strings in AdS 3

In the AdS/CFT correspondence, single trace operators of large-N gauge theories at large spin J can be described by classical spinning strings, giving a geometric and classical description of their spectrum at strong coupling. We observe that in AdS 3 these strings have significant gravitational back-reaction at sufficiently large spin, since the gravitational force does not decay at long distances. We construct solutions for folded spinning strings coupled to gravity in AdS 3 and compute their spectrum, corresponding to the leading Regge trajectory of Virasroro primary operators. These solutions exist only below a maximal spin J < J max , and as J → J max the solution approaches an extremal rotating BTZ black hole.