{
  "abstract": "We revisit an old idea that spectral flow in WZW models can be associated with certain $G$-bundles over a worldsheet. This allows us to introduce a novel method for computing correlators of spectrally-flowed vertex operators in WZW models with group $G$ and level $k$, by systematically computing the contribution from a network of line defects. Specialising to the case of $G=SL(2, \\mathbb{R})$, as is relevant to AdS$_3$ string theory, we demonstrate that generic $n$-point functions of spectrally-flowed vertex operators at tree level can be rewritten in terms of an $(n+1)$-point function of $n$ unflowed vertex operators and one degenerate insertion. This is to be interpreted as an unflowed $n$-point function in an instanton background. Moreover, we conjecture that this $(n+1)$-point function can be recast as an $n$-point function of unflowed operators and we provide evidence for this. We demonstrate that the $(n+1)$-point function satisfies the same constraints from global spacetime conformal invariance as does an unflowed $n$-point function for a specific choice of spacetime coordinates that we determine. We verify that our results agree with bootstrap results in the literature. This provides the next step towards fully solving the $SL(2,\\mathbb{R})$ WZW model.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": "2611.06295",
  "author_total": 3,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Nathan McStay"
    },
    {
      "name": "Ronald Reid-Edwards"
    },
    {
      "name": "Sean Seet"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/c7e7bbfn6xdh3.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.48550/arxiv.2611.06295",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "c7e7bbfn6xdh3",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.06295",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": "CC0-1.0",
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "arxiv",
      "hep-th"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": null,
  "pdf_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2611.06295",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-11-04",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/c7e7bbfn6xdh3.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-11-05T15:20:56Z",
      "native_id": "2611.06295",
      "source": "arxiv",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.06295"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "physics",
      "origin": "arxiv:hep-th",
      "subfield": "high-energy"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Spectral flow in AdS$\\mathbf{_3}$ revisited",
  "title_text": "Spectral flow in AdS_3 revisited",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-11-09T00:20:39Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/c7e7bbfn6xdh3",
  "venue": "arXiv",
  "versions": []
}