Holography in flat spacetime: 4D theories and electromagnetic duality on the border

Abstract: We consider a free topological model in 5D euclidean flat spacetime, built from two rank-2 tensor fields. Despite the fact that the bulk of the model does not have any particular physical interpretation, on its 4D planar edge nontrivial gauge field theories are recovered, whose features are entirely determined by the gauge and discrete symmetries of the bulk. In particular no 4D dynamics can be obtained without imposing a Time Reversal invariance in the bulk. Remarkably, one of the two possible edge models selected by the Time Reversal symmetries displays a true electromagnetic duality, which relates strong and weak coupling regimes. Moreover this same model, when considered on-shell, coincides with the Maxwell theory, which therefore can be thought of as a 4D boundary theory of a seemingly harmless 5D topological model.