Smoothed Transitions in Higher Spin AdS Gravity

Understand

We consider CFTs conjectured to be dual to higher spin theories of gravity in AdS_3 and AdS_4.

• Two dimensional CFTs with W_N symmetry are considered in the lambda=0 (k --> infinity) limit, where they are conjectured to be described by continuous orbifolds.
• The torus partition function is computed, using reasonable assumptions, and equals that of a free field theory.
• We find no phase transition at temperatures of order one; the usual Hawking-Page phase transition is removed by the highly degenerate light states associated with conical defect states in the bulk.