Deriving the long-string CFT in AdS$_3$

Abstract: We revisit the path integral formulation of bosonic string theory in locally-AdS$_3$ spacetimes. Through a careful analysis of the worldsheet sigma model, we write down an effective theory of long strings living near the boundary of AdS$_3$. By directly computing the partition function of the long-string sector, we find that the worldsheet path integral naturally organizes itself into the Coulomb-gas expansion of a 2D conformal field theory on the asymptotic boundary, with the number of coulomb integrals being dual to the dimension of the moduli space of worldsheet instantons in the bulk. As such, we provide a derivation of the CFT dual of long strings in AdS$_3$ for completely generic spacetime and worldsheet topologies.