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Abstract We present a systematic procedure to extract the dynamics of the low energy soft mode in SYK type models with a single energy scale J and emergent reparametrization symmetry in the IR. This is given in the framework of the perturbative scheme of arXiv:1608.07567 based on a specific (off-shell) breaking of conformal invariance in the UV, adjusted to yield the exact large-N saddle point. While this breaking term formally vanishes on-shell, it has a non-trivial effect on correlation functions and the effective action. In particular, it leads to the Schwarzian action with a specific coupling to bi-local matter. The method is applied to the evaluation of O(1) corrections to the correlation function of bi-locals. As a byproduct we confirm precise agreement with the explicit, symmetry breaking procedure. We provide a verification in the large q limit (Liouville theory), where the correlators can be calculated exactly at all length scales. In this case, our scheme illuminates how the enhanced O(J) and the subleading O(1) contributions originate from the Schwarzian dynamics of the soft mode and its interaction with h = 2 (bi-local) matter.

Abstract In [15] it was shown that the spectrum and bilocal propagator of SYK model with four fermion interactions can be realized as a three dimensional model in AdS 2 ×S 1 /Z 2 with nontrivial boundary conditions in the additional dimension. In this paper we show that a similar picture holds for generalizations of the SYK model with q-fermion interactions. The 3D realization is now given on a space whose metric is conformal to AdS 2 × S 1 /Z 2 and is subject to a non-trivial potential in addition to a delta function at the center of the interval. It is shown that a Horava-Witten compactification reproduces the exact SYK spectrum and a non-standard propagator between points which lie at the center of the interval exactly agrees with the bilocal propagator. As q → ∞, the wave function of one of the modes at the center of the interval vanish as 1/q, while the others vanish as 1/q 2, in a way consistent with the fact that in the SYK model only one of the modes contributes to the bilocal propagator in this limit.