We study out-of-time ordered four-point functions in two dimensional conformal field theories by suitably analytically continuing the Euclidean correlator. For large central charge theories with a sparse spectrum, chaotic dynamics is revealed in an exponential decay; this is seen directly in the contribution of the vacuum block to the correlation function. However, contributions from individual non-vacuum blocks with large spin and small twist dominate over the vacuum block. We argue, based on holographic intuition, that suitable summations over such intermediate states in the block decomposition of the correlator should be sub-dominant, and attempt to use this criterion to constrain the OPE data with partial success. Along the way we also discuss the relation between the spinning Virasoro blocks and the on-shell worldline action of spinning particles in an asymptotically AdS spacetime.

We prove that there does not exist any weak coupling limit in the space of superconformal field theories in five and six dimensions, based on an analysis of the representation theory of the corresponding superconformal algebras. Holographically, this implies that superstring theories on AdS6 and AdS7 do not admit tensionless limits. Finally, we discuss the implications of our result on the existence of an action for coincident M5-branes.

We investigate a class of supersymmetric quantum mechanical theories (with two supercharges) having tensor-valued degrees of freedom which are dominated by melon diagrams in the large N limit. One motivation was to examine the interplay between supersymmetry and melonic dominance and potential implications for building toy models of holography. We find a definite tension between supersymmetry (with dynamical bosons) and melonic dominance in this class of systems. More specifically, our theories attain a low energy non-supersymmetric conformal fixed point. The origin of supersymmetry breaking lies in the need to regularize bosonic and fermionic degrees of freedom independently. We investigate various aspects of the low energy spectrum and also comment on related examples with different numbers of supercharges. Along the way we also derive some technical results for SL(2, ℝ) wavefunctions for fermionic excitations.

We consider topological defect lines (TDLs) in two-dimensional conformal field theories. Generalizing and encompassing both global symmetries and Verlinde lines, TDLs together with their attached defect operators provide models of fusion categories without braiding. We study the crossing relations of TDLs, discuss their relation to the ’t Hooft anomaly, and use them to constrain renormalization group flows to either conformal critical points or topological quantum field theories (TQFTs). We show that if certain non-invertible TDLs are preserved along a RG flow, then the vacuum cannot be a non-degenerate gapped state. For various massive flows, we determine the infrared TQFTs completely from the consideration of TDLs together with modular invariance.

We study five-dimensional superconformal field theories and their holographic dual, matter-coupled Romans supergravity. On the one hand, some recently derived formulae allow us to extract the central charges from deformations of the supersymmetric five-sphere partition function, whose large N expansion can be computed using matrix model techniques. On the other hand, the conformal and flavor central charges can be extracted from the six-dimensional supergravity action, by carefully analyzing its embedding into type I’ string theory. The results match on the two sides of the holographic duality. Our results also provide analytic evidence for the symmetry enhancement in five-dimensional superconformal field theories.