A bstract We apply the OPE inversion formula on thermal two-point functions of fermions to obtain thermal one-point function of fermion bi-linears appearing in the corresponding OPE. We primarily focus on the OPE channel which contains the stress tensor of the theory. We apply our formalism to the mean field theory of fermions and verify that the inversion formula reproduces the spectrum as well as their corresponding thermal one-point functions. We then examine the large N critical Gross-Neveu model in d = 2 k + 1 dimensions with k even and at finite temperature. We show that stress tensor evaluated from the inversion formula agrees with that evaluated from the partition function at the critical point. We demonstrate the expectation values of 3 different classes of higher spin currents are all related to each other by numerical constants, spin and the thermal mass. We evaluate the ratio of the thermal expectation values of higher spin currents at the critical point to the Gaussian fixed point or the Stefan-Boltzmann result, both for the large N critical O ( N ) model and the Gross-Neveu model in odd dimensions. This ratio is always less than one and it approaches unity on increasing the spin with the dimension d held fixed. The ratio however approaches zero when the dimension d is increased with the spin held fixed.
We explore the idea that the mass parameter
m can be used as a diagnostic tool for identifying the critical points of thermal two-point functions of massive free scalar fields in odd
d dimensions. For general values of
m these correlators admit an expansion in thermal conformal blocks associated with symmetric traceless operators of definite scaling dimension. For each spin the higher-twist contributions can be resummed into a closed-form dressing factor of the leading-twist coefficient. At special values of
m for which the thermal trace of the energy-momentum tensor vanishes they are identified as two-point functions of thermal CFTs. Through a dimensional uplift, valid for all
m, we map these correlators to thermal two-point functions of higher-derivative massive theories in
d+2 dimensions. We show that the thermal trace of the energy-momentum tensor of the
d+2-dimensional theory is proportional to the free energy of the original
d-dimensional theory. When that thermal trace vanishes for
m=0 the uplifted correlators are identified as two-point functions of a higher-derivative nonunitary thermal CFT
d+2, but they differ from the uplifted nontrivial thermal two-point functions of the original unitary CFT
d.
We consider defect conformal field theories (DCFTs) at finite temperature, where a
p-dimensional conformal defect wraps the thermal circle. Extending the previous study of line defects to defects of general dimensions, we determine the general forms of the thermal one-point functions of bulk scalars, conserved currents and the stress tensor by imposing the residual symmetry and the conservation laws. The low temperature expansion of the thermal one-point functions is shown to be reproduced by the bulk-defect operator expansion, allowing us to read off the thermal one-point coefficients of defect operators. We examine the general results in four classes of examples with free bulk theories: the trivial defect, free scalar and fermion theories with a boundary, the free scalar theory with a localized
ϕ deformation in
d=2p+2 dimensions and the free
O(N) model with a localized
ϕ2 deformation in
d=p+2−ε dimensions. In the last example with
ε=1, where the defect becomes an interface, we find that the thermal one-point functions coincide with those of the free scalar theory with the Dirichlet boundary condition, in accordance with the conjectured factorization of an interface CFT into two decoupled boundary CFTs.
Abstract We obtain an asymptotic formula for the average value of the operator product expansion coefficients of any unitary, compact two dimensional CFT with c > 1. This formula is valid when one or more of the operators has large dimension or — in the presence of a twist gap — has large spin. Our formula is universal in the sense that it depends only on the central charge and not on any other details of the theory. This result unifies all previous asymptotic formulas for CFT2 structure constants, including those derived from crossing symmetry of four point functions, modular covariance of torus correlation functions, and higher genus modular invariance. We determine this formula at finite central charge by deriving crossing kernels for higher genus crossing equations, which give analytic control over the structure constants even in the absence of exact knowledge of the conformal blocks. The higher genus modular kernels are obtained by sewing together the elementary kernels for four-point crossing and modular transforms of torus one-point functions. Our asymptotic formula is related to the DOZZ formula for the structure constants of Liouville theory, and makes precise the sense in which Liouville theory governs the universal dynamics of heavy operators in any CFT. The large central charge limit provides a link with 3D gravity, where the averaging over heavy states corresponds to a coarse-graining over black hole microstates in holographic theories. Our formula also provides an improved understanding of the Eigenstate Thermalization Hypothesis (ETH) in CFT2, and suggests that ETH can be generalized to other kinematic regimes in two dimensional CFTs.
We study conformal field theories at finite temperature in the presence of a temporal conformal line defect, wrapping the thermal circle, akin to a Polyakov loop in gauge theories. Although several symmetries of the conformal group are broken, the model can still be highly constrained from its features at zero temperature. In this work we show that the defect and bulk one and two-point correlators can be written as functions of zero-temperature data and thermal one-point functions (defect and bulk). The defect one-point functions are new data and they are induced by thermal effects of the bulk. For this new set of data we derive novel sum rules and establish a bootstrap problem for the thermal defect one-point functions from the KMS condition. We also comment on the behaviour of operators with large scaling dimensions. Additionally, we relate the free energy and entropy density to the OPE data through the one-point function of the stress-energy tensor. Our formalism is validated through analytical computations in generalized free scalar field theory, and we present new predictions for the O(N) O ( N ) model with a magnetic impurity in the \varepsilon ε -expansion and the large N N limit.
We analyze the operator spectrum of Conformal Field Theories at large conformal dimensions
Delta with and without global symmetries. General constraints of crossing symmetry and unitarity allow us to extract a number of universal properties of heavy operator spectrum perturbatively in
1overDelta.\nFirst, we consider four-point correlators and solve crossing equations in the deep Euclidean regime. Large scaling dimension
Delta tails of the weighted spectral density of primary operators of given spin in one channel are matched to the Euclidean OPE data in the other channel. Subleading
1overDelta tails are systematically captured by including more operators in the Euclidean OPE in the dual channel. We use dispersion relations for conformal partial waves in the complex
Delta plane, the Lorentzian inversion formula and complex tauberian theorems to derive this result. We make predictions for the 3d Ising model.\nSecond, we apply the methods of tauberian theory to modular invariance in 2d CFTs. We derive lower and upper bounds on the number of operators within a given energy interval. At high energies we rigorously derive the Cardy formula for the microcanonical entropy together with optimal error estimates for various widths of the averaging energy shell. We identify a new universal contribution to the microcanonical entropy controlled by the central charge and the width of the shell. We derive an upper bound on the spacings between Virasoro primaries. Analogous results are obtained in holographic 2d CFTs. \nThird, we consider unitary CFTs with continuous global symmetries in
d>2. We consider a state created by the lightest operator of large charge
Qgg1 and analyze the correlator of two light charged operators in this state. Assuming the correlator admits a well-defined large
Q expansion and, relatedly, that the macroscopic (thermodynamic) limit of the correlator exists, we find that the crossing equations admit a consistent truncation, where only a finite number
N of Regge trajectories contribute at leading nontrivial order. We classify all such solutions to the crossing. For one Regge trajectory
N=1, the solution is unique and given by the effective field theory of a Goldstone mode.