Degrees of freedom of multiway junctions in three dimensional gravity

We demonstrate that n -way junctions in three-dimensional gravity correspond to coupled n − 1 strings each satisfying the Nambu-Goto equation in the smoothened background and with sources consisting of Monge-Ampère like terms which couple the strings. For n ≥ 3 , these n − 1 degrees of freedom survive the tensionless limit implying that matterlike behavior can arise out of gravity. We interpret these stringy degrees of freedom of gravitational junctions holographically in terms of wave packets, which collectively undergo perfect reflection at the multi-interface in the dual conformal field theory.