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Holographic conformal anomaly and a-theorem in 5D scalar-tensor theories from heterotic strings

Tianhao Wu* and Michael Stone

  • *Contact author: twu49@illinois.edu
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Phys. Rev. D 113, 086011 – Published 28 April, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/hnv7-fgcf

Abstract

Using the coefficient-frame freedom of the O(α′) heterotic metric-dilaton effective action and incorporating it into Kaluza-Klein reduction with different reduction Ansätze and maximally symmetric internal spaces, we derive two distinct reduced five-dimensional scalar-tensor branches: a Lovelock-Horndeski-type theory and, for a special coefficient choice, an Einstein-dilaton-Gauss-Bonnet theory. We present a novel derivation of the full holographic conformal anomaly for these two reduced five-dimensional scalar-tensor theories. In the Lovelock-Horndeski case, we also construct exact asymptotically anti–de Sitter (AdS) solutions with linear-dilaton profiles and establish a holographic a-theorem. Our findings show that AdS/CFT remains sound in the presence of nonminimal scalars and higher-curvature terms, with string corrections fixing the conformal anomaly and the dual RG flow.

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Phys. Rev. D 113, 086011– Published 28 April, 2026
  • Received 1 June 2025
  • Accepted 20 March 2026
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.

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