3D interacting CFTs and generalized Higgs phenomenon in higher spin theories on AdS

We study a duality, recently conjectured by Klebanov and Polyakov, between higher-spin theories on AdS4 and O(N) vector models in 3D. These theories are free in the UV and interacting in the IR. At the UV fixed point, the O(N) model has an infinite number of higher-spin conserved currents. In the IR, these currents are no longer conserved for spin s>2. In this Letter, we show that the dual interpretation of this fact is that all fields of spin s>2 in AdS4 become massive by a Higgs mechanism, that leaves the spin-2 field massless. We identify the Higgs field and show how it relates to the RG flow connecting the two CFTs, which is induced by a double trace deformation.