Propagation of Gravitons in the Shock Wave Geometry

In this thesis, I study propagation of gravitons in the shock wave geometry in the context of the AdS/CFT correspondence, with the goal to uncover some constraint on the supergravity action in the AdS space. In studying the shock wave geometry in an anti-deSitter (AdS) space, I find that the functional form of the shock wave metric does not receive a' correction, but the wave profile does. Then I study the propagation of gravitons in the shock wave geometry and show that the wave function has a finite jump at the shock wave frontier, and this corresponds to a shift in position of the graviton in the semi-classical picture. Thesis Supervisor: Hong Liu Title: Associate Professor Acknowledgments The author thanks Mr. Vladimir Rosenhaus for helpful discussion.