AdS/CFT Courses & Lecture Series

This page collects high-quality AdS/CFT / holography learning resources: complete course sites, recorded lecture series, and influential summer-school notes. If you have a favorite resource to add (or a broken link to fix), please send a suggestion.

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Quick study paths

Path A (standard graduate on-ramp)

1. MIT OCW course below (string theory → D-branes → AdS/CFT dictionary).
2. Klebanov + Maldacena TASI notes (classic perspective).
3. Aharony–Gubser–Maldacena–Ooguri–Oz review (big-picture map).

Path B (bottom-up / practical holography)

1. Kaplan “from the bottom up” notes.
2. McGreevy + Hartnoll notes (finite density, transport, superconductors).
3. KITP AdS/CMT program videos (tutorial-style talks).

Path C (QI / islands / bulk reconstruction)

1. Van Raamsdonk notes (geometry from entanglement).
2. Harlow TASI + Jerusalem lectures (QEC, reconstruction, info paradox).
3. TASI 2021 proceedings (black holes, AdS/CFT, QI, random matrices).

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Flagship full courses (course page + structured notes/videos)

MIT OpenCourseWare — 8.821 String Theory and Holographic Duality (Fall 2014, Hong Liu)

• Format: full course site with lecture notes + video lectures
• Focus: black holes, holography, D-branes, AdS/CFT dictionary, correlators, Wilson loops, finite temperature, entanglement
• Course page: https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/8-821-string-theory-and-holographic-duality-fall-2014/

Perimeter Institute (PIRSA) — AdS/CFT

• Format: recorded lecture series with PDFs
• Collection page (13 lectures): https://pirsa.org/c25013 ((Mar–May 2025, David Kubizňák)
• Collection page (13 lectures): https://pirsa.org/C23026 (Apr–May 2023, David Kubizňák)
• Collection example: https://pirsa.org/22030042 (Mar–Apr 2022, Pedro Vieira & Gang Xu)

University of Cambridge (DAMTP) — Course on Gauge-Gravity Duality (AdS/CFT) (notes + example sheets)

• Format: course page with lecture-note photos + problem sheets
• Course page: https://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/aw846/AdSCFT.html

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Summer schools & institute lecture series (videos + proceedings/notes)

TASI 2021 — “Black Holes, Quantum Information, and Dualities” (June–July 2021)

• Format: schedule/wiki + lecture notes & proceedings (open access)
• Wiki hub: https://sites.google.com/colorado.edu/tasi-2021-wiki/home
• Proceedings volume (PoS TASI2021): https://pos.sissa.it/403/
  Useful AdS/CFT-adjacent entries include:
  • Rangamani — Introduction to AdS/CFT (PoS(TASI2021)009)
  • Engelhardt — Quantum Information in AdS/CFT (PoS(TASI2021)004)
  • Perlmutter — Bootstrap for AdS/CFT (PoS(TASI2021)008)
  • Saad — Random matrix universality in AdS/CFT (PoS(TASI2021)011)

KITP (UCSB) Miniprogram — Quantum Criticality and the AdS/CFT Correspondence (June–July 2009)

• Format: program page + recorded talks, slides, audio/podcasts
• Program overview: https://www.kitp.ucsb.edu/activities/ADSCMT_M09
• Online talks portal: https://online.kitp.ucsb.edu/online/adscmt-m09/

Perimeter Institute (PIRSA) — Susskind mini-course Black Holes and Holography (2007)

• Format: recorded mini-course with PDFs/videos
• Collection page: https://pirsa.org/c07003

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Classic, historically influential lecture notes & reviews (foundational)

Klebanov — TASI Lectures: Introduction to the AdS/CFT Correspondence (TASI ’99)

• arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0009139

Maldacena — TASI 2003 Lectures on AdS/CFT (intro + plane-wave limit)

• arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0309246

Aharony–Gubser–Maldacena–Ooguri–Oz — Large N Field Theories, String Theory and Gravity (the “big review”)

• arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/9905111

Horowitz & Polchinski — Gauge/gravity duality (pedagogical review)

• arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0602037

Polchinski — Introduction to Gauge/Gravity Duality (TASI 2010)

• arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1010.6134

Hubeny — The AdS/CFT correspondence (GR-friendly emphasis)

• arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1501.00007

D’Hoker & Freedman — Supersymmetric gauge theories and the AdS/CFT correspondence (classic SUSY-centric lectures)

• arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0201253

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Condensed matter applications (AdS/CMT)

Hartnoll — Lectures on holographic methods for condensed matter physics

• arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/0903.3246

McGreevy — Holographic duality with a view toward many-body physics

• arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/0909.0518
• KITP paper record: https://www.kitp.ucsb.edu/papers/holographic-duality-view-toward-many-body-physics

Sachdev — Condensed matter and AdS/CFT

• arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1002.2947

ASC (LMU Munich) — AdS/CMT preparatory materials (reading + videos)

• Curated page: https://www.theorie.physik.uni-muenchen.de/activities/schools/archiv/2013_asc_school/preparatory_adscmt/index.html

(Add-ons you’ll see cited frequently in AdS/CMT work)

• Herzog — holographic superfluidity/superconductivity notes: https://arxiv.org/abs/0904.1975
• Horowitz — intro to holographic superconductors: https://arxiv.org/abs/1002.1722

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Quantum information, entanglement, and bulk reconstruction

Van Raamsdonk — Lectures on Gravity and Entanglement

• arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1609.00026

Harlow — Jerusalem Lectures on Black Holes and Quantum Information

• arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1409.1231

Harlow — TASI Lectures on the Emergence of Bulk Physics in AdS/CFT

• arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1802.01040
• Proceedings (PoS TASI2017): https://pos.sissa.it/305/002/

(More in this direction: TASI 2021 proceedings and many PIRSA “It from Qubit” talks.)

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AdS₂ / SYK / chaos / random matrices

Sárosi — AdS₂ Holography and the SYK Model

• arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1711.08482

Saad — TASI lectures on random matrix universality in AdS/CFT

• Proceedings (PoS TASI2021): https://pos.sissa.it/403/011/

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Handy archives (browse by topic)

• PIRSA (Perimeter video + notes archive): https://pirsa.org/
• KITP online talks: https://online.kitp.ucsb.edu/online/
• Mukund Rangamani’s AdS/CFT resource page (videos + notes pointers): https://mukund.physics.ucdavis.edu/research/adscft/

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Citation / acknowledgment

If you reuse material from an external course (figures, problem sets, text), please follow the license and citation guidance on the original course page (e.g., MIT OCW has its own licensing terms).