Gauge/gravity duality is more than AdS/CFT.  In this talk I will discuss how the holographic dictionary generalises to non-conformal settings, focusing on maximally supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories in diverse dimensions and their Dp-brane supergravity duals. Scaling covariance replaces conformal invariance as the unifying principle on both sides of the duality. On the gravity side, I will show how to systematically organise effective actions and Witten diagram rules for arbitrary correlators of scalar and spin-1 Kaluza-Klein modes. On the field theory side, scale covariance fixes the kinematic structure of 2- and 3-point functions at strong coupling, with the latter admitting closed-form expressions in terms of Appell functions. I will illustrate these results with explicit examples, focussing on 3d MSYM.

Theta operators are weight-shifting differential operators on  automorphic forms. They play an important role in studying congruences between Hecke eigenforms and their p-adic variation. For instance, the classical theta operator, which acts on q-expansions of modular forms as q·(d/dq), is used crucially in Edixhoven’s proof of the weight part of Serre’s conjecture, Katz’s construction of p-adic L-functions over CM fields, and Coleman’s classicality theorem.

Recent years have witnessed extensive works on understanding theta operators over general Shimura varieties, from both geometric and representation-theoretic perspectives. In this talk, I will hint at some aspects of this fascinating area of research. If time permits, I will discuss my ongoing work on overconvergent theta operators over Siegel Shimura varieties.