Non-relativistic M2-branes and the AdS/CFT correspondence

A bstract A non-relativistic limit of the AdS/CFT correspondence is studied in the context of M2-branes. On the field theory side this corresponds to a near-BPS limit of ABJM that localises onto solutions of Hitchin’s equations. It is shown that the symmetries of the theory include an infinite-dimensional enhancement of the spatial symmetry algebra corresponding to time-dependent holomorphic transformations. Taking the limit of the gravitational dual splits the geometry into three ‘large’ directions and eight ‘small’ directions and corresponds to the Membrane-Newton-Cartan limit of eleven-dimensional supergravity. This has the effect of reducing the AdS 4 factor to an AdS 2 factor for the near-horizon limit of the M2-brane metric. Evidence is presented that the duality is maintained after the limit.