Researchers have successfully reconstructed microscopic parameters of higher-curvature scalar-tensor gravity theories, derived from string theory, using holographic observables. This breakthrough is significant as it allows for the inference of microscopic coupling data encoded in the boundary response of these theories. The study focused on the five-dimensional string-derived Lovelock-Horndeski (SDLH) theory on its exact linear-dilaton asymptotically AdS branch. To achieve this, they constructed the renormalized generating functional for an arbitrary boundary metric and a spacetime-dependent scalar source.

The method employed unifies the variational problem, local backreaction, logarithmic obstruction, finite one-point functions, and Ward identities through a boundary-covariant radial hierarchy. Two response determinants organize the recursion, resonant obstructions, and metric-scalar mixing. The Weyl anomaly condenses into an Euler density, a Weyl-squared density, and a single curvature-scalar square, whose paired variations generate the metric and scalar obstructions. This renormalized functional carries string-selected coupling data into boundary geometry, operator response, anomaly coefficients, and a calculable interface with gravitational observables.

On the regular branch, four scalar-normalization-invariant holographic combinations admit a global rational inverse to the continuous reduced couplings. At fixed compactification dimension, the map has maximal rank, and the curvature-anomaly sum reconstructs the higher-dimensional Gauss-Bonnet coefficient without sign ambiguity. Holographic response thus provides an explicit, overdetermined boundary fingerprint of the underlying string reduction, opening new avenues for probing the fundamental physics of string theories.