A shape dynamical approach to holographic renormalization

We provide a bottom-up argument to derive some known results from holographic renormalization using the classical bulk–bulk equivalence of General Relativity and Shape Dynamics, a theory with spatial conformal (Weyl) invariance. The purpose of this paper is twofold: (1) to advertise the simple classical mechanism, trading off gauge symmetries, that underlies the bulk–bulk equivalence of General Relativity and Shape Dynamics to readers interested in dualities of the type of AdS/conformal field theory (CFT); and (2) to highlight that this mechanism can be used to explain certain results of holographic renormalization, providing an alternative to the AdS/CFT conjecture for these cases. To make contact with the usual semiclassical AdS/CFT correspondence, we provide, in addition, a heuristic argument that makes it plausible that the classical equivalence between General Relativity and Shape Dynamics turns into a duality between radial evolution in gravity and the renormalization group flow of a CFT. We believe that Shape Dynamics provides a new perspective on gravity by giving conformal structure a primary role within the theory. It is hoped that this work provides the first steps toward understanding what this new perspective may be able to teach us about holographic dualities.