We show that the spinning magnetic one-brane in minimal five-dimensional supergravity admits a decoupling limit that interpolates smoothly between a self-dual null orbifold of AdS_3 \times S^2 and the near-horizon limit of the extremal Kerr black hole times a circle. We use this interpolating solution to understand the field theory dual to spinning M5 branes as a deformation of the Discrete Light Cone Quantized (DLCQ) Maldacena-Stominger-Witten (MSW) CFT. In particular, the conformal weights of the operators dual to the deformation around AdS_3 \times S^2 are calculated. We present pieces of evidence showing that a CFT dual to the four-dimensional extremal Kerr can be obtained from the deformed MSW CFT.

Extremal but non-supersymmetric charged black holes with SU(2)_L spin in IIB string theory compactified to five dimensions on K^3 x S^1 are considered. These have a near-horizon or NHEK region with an enhanced SL(2,R)_L conformal symmetry. It is shown that the NHEK geometry has a second, inequivalent, asymptotically flat extension in which the radius of the S^1 becomes infinite but the radius of the angular circles of SU(2)_L orbits approach a constant. The asymptotic charges associated to the second solution identify it as a 5D D1-D5-Taub-NUT black string with certain nonzero worldvolume charge densities, temperatures and chemical potentials. The dual of the NHEK geometry is then identified as an IR limit of this wrapped brane configuration.

String theory contains solutions with SL(2,R)_R x U(1)_L-invariant warped AdS3 (WAdS3) factors arising as continuous deformations of ordinary AdS3 factors. We propose that some of these are holographically dual to the IR limits of nonlocal dipole-deformed 2D D-brane gauge theories, referred to as "dipole CFTs". Neither the bulk nor boundary theories are currently well-understood, and consequences of the proposed duality for both sides is investigated. The bulk entropy-area law suggests that dipole CFTs have (at large N) a high-energy density of states which does not depend on the deformation parameter. Putting the boundary theory on a spatial circle leads to closed timelike curves in the bulk, suggesting a relation of the latter to dipole-type nonlocality.

We show that the six-dimensional uplift of the five-dimensional Near-Horizon-Extremal-Kerr (NHEK) spacetime can be obtained from an AdS_3 X S^3 solution by a sequence of supergravity - but not string theory - dualities. We present three ways of viewing these pseudo-dualities: as a series of transformations in the STU model, as a combination of Melvin twists and T-dualities and, finally, as a sequence of two generalized spectral flows and a coordinate transformation. We then use these to find an infinite family of asymptotically flat embeddings of NHEK spacetimes in string theory, parameterized by the arbitrary values of the moduli at infinity. Our construction reveals the existence of non-perturbative deformations of asymptotically-NHEK spacetimes, which correspond to the bubbling of nontrivial cycles wrapped by flux, and paves the way for finding a microscopic field theory dual to NHEK which involves Melvin twists of the D1-D5 gauge theory. Our analysis also clarifies the meaning of the generalized spectral flow solution-generating techniques that have been recently employed in the literature.

String theory on NS-NS AdS_3 x S^3 admits an exactly marginal deformation which breaks the SL(2,R)_R x SL(2,R)_L isometry of AdS_3 down to SL(2,R)_R x U(1)_L. The holographic dual is an exotic and only partially understood type of two-dimensional CFT with a reduced unbroken global conformal symmetry group. In this paper we study the deformed theory on the string worldsheet. It is found to be related by a spectral flow which is nonlocal in spacetime to the undeformed worldsheet theory. An exact formula for the spectrum of massive strings is presented.