Four-dimensional conformal supergravity from AdS space - art. no. 104009

Exploring the role of conformal theories of gravity in string theory, we sh ow that the minimal (N=2) gauged supergravities in five dimensions induce t he multiplets and transformations of N=1 four-dimensional conformal supergr avity on the spacetime boundary. N=1 Poincare supergravity can be induced b y explicitly breaking the conformal invariance via a radial cutoff ill the 5D space. The AdS/CFT correspondence relates the maximal gauged supergravit y in five dimensions to N=4 super Yang-Mills theory on the 4D spacetime bou ndary. In this context we show that the conformal anomaly of the gauge theo ry induces conformal gravity on the boundary of the space and that this the ory, via the renormalization group, encapsulates the gravitational dynamics of the skin of asymptotically AdS spacetimes. Our results have several app lications to the AdS/CFT correspondence and the Randall-Sundrum scenario.