Three dimensional view of the SYK/AdS duality

We show that the spectrum of the SYK model can be interpreted as that of a 3D scalar coupled to gravity. The scalar has a mass which is at the Breitenholer-Freedman bound of AdS2, and subject to a delta function potential at the center of the interval along the third direction. This, through Kaluza-Klein procedure on AdS2 × (S 1)/Z 2, generates the spectrum reproducing the bi-local propagator at strong coupling. Furthermore, the leading 1/J correction calculated in this picture reproduces the known correction to the poles of the SYK propagator, providing credence to a conjecture that the bulk dual of this model can be interpreted as a three dimensional theory.