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arXiv:2306.12417 · Journal of High Energy Physics

Broken (super) conformal Ward identities at finite temperature

Enrico Marchetto, Alessio Miscioscia, Elli Pomoni

Published Dec 27, 2023• 14 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Abstract When a (super) conformal field theory is placed on a non-trivial manifold, the (super) conformal symmetry is broken. However, it is still possible to derive broken Ward identities for these broken symmetries, which provide additional constraints on the theory. We derive and apply the broken Ward identities associated with the (super) conformal group on the thermal manifold $$ {\mathcal{M}}_{\beta }={S}_{\beta}^1\times {\mathbb{R}}^{d-1} $$ M β = S β 1 × ℝ d − 1 and $$ \mathcal{M}={T}^2\times {\mathbb{R}}^{d-2} $$ M = T 2 × ℝ d − 2 . The novel constraints not only systematically reproduce known results, including an implicit formulation of the generalized Cardy formula, but also elegantly relate the thermal energy spectrum with the conformal spectrum.

DOI
10.1007/jhep12(2023)186

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Breaking Symmetries: N=2\mathcal{N} = 2N=2 Spin Chains and Conformal Field Theory at Finite Temperature
Conformal field theories (CFTs) and supersymmetric field theories constitute special classes of quantum field theories with applications ranging from critical phenomena and confinement to quantum gravity via holography. Their large symmetry groups make them ideal testing grounds for theoretical developments, enabling the use of powerful and elegant methods. Among these, conformal bootstrap and integrability have proven particularly successful. In this thesis, we take steps toward extending these methods beyond their conventional domains by breaking conformal symmetry through finite temperature effects and reducing supersymmetry via orbifolding. For spin chains arising from N=2\mathcal{N} = 2N=2 superconformal field theories obtained by orbifolding N=4\mathcal{N} = 4N=4 super Yang–Mills theory in four dimensions, we generalize the coordinate Bethe ansatz by incorporating long-range corrections.On the conformal bootstrap side, after breaking conformality by placing the CFT on a d-dimensional cylinder, we develop an analytic framework based on dispersion relations. We apply this method to several theories, including large-N CFTs in four dimensions. Furthermore, we combine this analytic approach with existing numerical bootstrap techniques at finite temperature to compute new thermal correlation functions in the three-dimensional Ising CFT.
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This article presents a systematic development of conformal field theory from first principles in quantum field theory, emphasizing complete derivations of the conformal group in arbitrary dimensions from the conformal Killing equation, proving its isomorphism to SO(d+1,1)\mathrm{SO}(d+1,1)SO(d+1,1), and developing the embedding space formalism as a tool for constructing conformally covariant correlation functions constrained by Ward identities. In two dimensions, conformal symmetry enhances to an infinite-dimensional algebra: we derive the Virasoro algebra [Lm,Ln]=(m−n)Lm+n+c12(m3−m)δm+n,0[L_m, L_n] = (m-n)L_{m+n} + \frac{c}{12}(m^3-m)\delta_{m+n,0}[Lm​,Ln​]=(m−n)Lm+n​+12c​(m3−m)δm+n,0​ from infinitesimal generators ℓn=−zn+1∂z\ell_n = -z^{n+1}\partial_zℓn​=−zn+1∂z​, computing the central charge explicitly for free theories (boson c=1c=1c=1, Majorana fermion c=1/2c=1/2c=1/2, bcbcbc-ghosts c=1−3(2λ−1)2c = 1-3(2\lambda-1)^2c=1−3(2λ−1)2) and demonstrating its physical interpretation as vacuum energy. Through radial quantization, we establish the operator-state correspondence and construct the Hilbert space via Virasoro descendants of primary states ∣h,hˉ⟩|h,\bar{h}\rangle∣h,hˉ⟩, deriving the transformation law T′(w)=(dw/dz)−2[T(z)−(c/12){w;z}]T'(w) = (dw/dz)^{-2}[T(z) - (c/12)\{w;z\}]T′(w)=(dw/dz)−2[T(z)−(c/12){w;z}] that reveals the geometric origin of the conformal anomaly.
Two-dimensional conformal field theories exhibit a universal free energy in the high temperature limit T → ∞, and a universal spectrum in the Cardy regime, Δ → ∞. We show that a much stronger form of universality holds in theories with a large central charge c and a sparse light spectrum. In these theories, the free energy is universal at all values of the temperature, and the microscopic spectrum matches the Cardy entropy for all Δ≥c6 \Delta \ge \frac{c}{6} Δ≥6c​ . The same is true of three-dimensional quantum gravity; therefore our results provide simple necessary and sufficient criteria for 2d CFTs to behave holographically in terms of the leading spectrum and thermodynamics. We also discuss several applications to CFT and gravity, including operator dimension bounds derived from the modular bootstrap, universality in symmetric orbifolds, and the role of non-universal ‘enigma’ saddlepoints in the thermodynamics of 3d gravity.
Momentum space Ward identities are derived for the amputated n-point Green’s functions in 3 + 1 dimensional non-relativistic conformal field theory. For n = 4 and 6 the implications for scattering amplitudes (i.e. on-shell amputated Green’s functions) are considered. Any scale invariant 2-to-2 scattering amplitude is also conformally invariant. However, conformal invariance imposes constraints on off-shell Green’s functions and the three particle scattering amplitude which are not automatically satisfied if they are scale invariant. As an explicit example of a conformally invariant theory we consider non-relativistic particles in the infinite scattering length limit. 1 Poincaré invariant theories that are scale invariant usually have a larger symmetry group called the conformal group1. A similar phenomena happens for 3+1 dimensional nonrelativistic systems. These are invariant under the extended Galilean group, which consists of 10 generators: translations (4), rotations (3), and Galilean boosts (3). The largest space-time symmetry group of the free Schrödinger equation is called the Schrödinger or nonrelativistic
We exploit the renormalization-group approach to establish the exact infrared behavior of an interacting Bose system at zero temperature. The local-gauge symmetry in the broken-symmetry phase is implemented through the associated Ward identities, which reduce the number of independent running couplings to a single one. For this coupling the \ensuremath{\epsilon} expansion can be controlled to all orders in \ensuremath{\epsilon} $(=3\ensuremath{-}d).$ For spatial dimensions 1<d< 31<d<~31<d< 3 the Bogoliubov fixed point is unstable towards a different fixed point characterized by the divergence of the longitudinal correlation function. The Bogoliubov linear spectrum, however, is found to be independent of the critical behavior of this correlation function, being exactly constrained by Ward identities. The new fixed point properly gives a finite value of the coupling among transverse fluctuations, but due to virtual intermediate longitudinal fluctuations, the effective coupling affecting the transverse correlation function flows to zero. As a result, no transverse anomalous dimension is present. This treatment allows us to recover known results for the quantum Bose gas in the context of a unifying framework and also to reveal the nontrivial skeleton structure of its perturbation theory.