Infinite-dimensional symmetries in plane wave spacetimes

Abstract: We study the asymptotic symmetries of the Nappi-Witten spacetime in four dimensions, a plane wave arising as the Penrose limit of AdS$_2\times S^2$. Imposing suitable boundary conditions at large transverse distance, we uncover a new infinite-dimensional symmetry algebra allowing for non-trivial central extensions. The corresponding phase space encompasses the most general four-dimensional pp-wave metric, including in particular the Penrose limit of Kerr black holes.