Beyond the unitarity bound in AdS/CFT_(A)dS

Abstract: In this work we expand on the holographic description of CFTs on de Sitter (dS) and anti-de Sitter (AdS) spacetimes and examine how violations of the unitarity bound in the boundary theory are recovered in the bulk physics. To this end we consider a Klein-Gordon field on AdS_(d+1) conformally compactified such that the boundary is (A)dS_d, and choose masses and boundary conditions such that the corresponding boundary operator violates the CFT unitarity bound. The setup in which the boundary is AdS_d exhibits a particularly interesting structure, since in this case the boundary itself has a boundary. The bulk theory turns out to crucially depend on the choice of boundary conditions on the boundary of the AdS_d slices. Our main result is that violations to the unitarity bound in CFTs on dS_d and AdS_d are reflected in the bulk through the presence of ghost excitations. In addition, analyzing the setup with AdS_d on the boundary allows us to draw conclusions on multi-layered AdS/CFT-type dualities.