A chiral limit for Chern-Simons-matter theories

Abstract

Large N quasi-fermionic Chern-Simons-matter theories have an approximate higher-spin symmetry that strongly constrains their correlation functions. In particular, the 3-point functions for generic spins are combinations of 3 structures (with specific dependence on the positions and helicities), and the coupling-dependence of the coefficient of each structure is uniquely determined. In the past few years, several relations between different structures were found. In this paper we show that all the relations between the structures follow from (or, conversely, they imply) a specific form written by Skvortsov for the vertices of the dual higher-spin gravity theory on four-dimensional anti-de Sitter space, when written in spinor-helicity variables. The dual bulk theory has a specific limit where it simplifies and becomes a “chiral higher-spin gravity theory”, and we discuss what can be said about this limit in the dual Chern-Simons-matter theories, where it involves an analytic continuation to complex couplings.