U2-5017
Title: Knizhnik--Zamolodchikov equations and the analytic structure of strings in AdS3
Abstract: String theory on AdS3 with pure NSNS flux is an ideal laboratory for holography beyond the supergravity limit: its worldsheet theory, the SL(2,R) WZW model, is exactly solvable, giving direct access to fully stringy correlators. The pole structure of string correlators encodes essential information about this duality, and its residues can be compared directly with a holographic CFT defined as a deformed symmetric orbifold. So far, this has been achieved for n-point functions only for a subset of poles and using free-field techniques. In this talk I will present an alternative approach based on the exact symmetries of the worldsheet theory. Starting from the localization of correlators on covering maps, the Knizhnik--Zamolodchikov equations can be solved for any number of insertions and arbitrary spectral flow charges, reproducing the holographic CFT residues. This provides a systematic framework for computing the remaining residues and, ultimately, for determining the full analytic structure of string amplitudes in AdS3. Based on work with S. Iguri and N. Kovensky [arXiv:2609.35495].