Holography for the Trace Anomaly Action

Abstract: A recently proposed effective action for the trace anomaly describes a tensor-scalar theory that is weakly coupled up to a certain high energy scale, where it becomes strongly interacting. Its ultraviolet completion is obtained by coupling to gravity a quantum field theory in which conformal invariance is spontaneously broken. In this paper, we show that if the field theory that gives rise to the trace anomaly is a large $N_c$ conformal field theory, then the trace anomaly action has a completion above the strong scale in a holographic Randall-Sundrum two-brane theory, with the radion as a low energy remnant of the spontaneously broken conformal symmetry. Furthermore, we note that the sub-leading $N_c$ terms can be derived by adding localized fields to the UV brane, so that the theory remains weakly coupled. The sub-leading terms are also obtained by introducing the Weyl squared terms in the 5D bulk. These, however, exhibit strongly coupled behavior at the respective sub-Planckian energy scales.