Abstract

We consider a self-interacting scalar field whose mass saturates the Breitenlohner-Freedman bound, minimally coupled to Einstein gravity with a negative cosmological constant in D>= 3 dimensions. It is shown that the asymptotic behavior of the metric has a slower fall-off than that of pure gravity with a localized distribution of matter, due to the back-reaction of the scalar field, which has a logarithmic branch decreasing as r ^(-(D 1)/2) ln r for large radius r. We find the asymptotic conditions on the fields which are invariant under the same symmetry group as pure gravity with negative cosmological constant conformal group in D-1 dimensions . The generators of the asymptotic symmetries are finite even when the logarithmic branch is considered but acquire, however, a contribution from the scalar field.