String amplitudes in AdS: an emergent worldsheet picture

The study of string scattering in general curved spacetimes presents a stark contrast to the relatively well-understood framework in flat space, where perturbative techniques and worldsheet methods can be used. However, the AdS/CFT correspondence offers a powerful indirect method to compute string amplitudes in AdS. In this talk, I will present recent developments in the AdS Virasoro-Shapiro program. The tree-level amplitude of four gravitons in AdS^5 x S^5 is mapped to a four-point correlator in N=4 SYM at large central charge, and studied by CFT methods combined with single-valuedness, which echoes its importance in flat space. The amplitude itself is defined and constructed as an expansion around flat space. While the goal is to compute it to all orders, attention can be placed on more tractable limits. I will present our results for the High Energy limit, with dual insights from the spacetime and worldsheet perspectives, and the richer case of the Regge limit, which encodes full information on the intermediate operators in the leading Regge trajectory.