Recent progress in generalized symmetry and topological holography has shown that, in conformal field theory (CFT), topological data from one dimensional higher can play a key role in determining local dynamics. Based on this insight, a fixed-point (FP) tensor complex (TC) for CFT has recently been constructed. In this work, we develop a TC renormalization (TCR) algorithm adapted to this CFT-based structure, forming a renormalization-group (RG) framework with generalized symmetry. We show that the full FP tensor can emerge from the RG flow starting with only the three-point function of the primary fields. Remarkably, even when starting solely from topological data, the RG process can still reconstruct the full FP tensor--a method we call as topological bootstrap. This approach deepens the connection between the topological and dynamical aspects of CFT and suggests pathways toward a fully algebraic description of gapless quantum states, with potential extensions to higher dimensions.
Fixed-point (FP) tensor networks provide a discrete spacetime representation of conformal field theories (CFTs), offering a new route toward understanding holographic duality, generalized symmetries, and even quantum gravity. In this work, we construct FP tensors for the 2D compactified boson theory at a generic compactification radius, an archetypal irrational CFT, using boundary (open-string) data with conformal boundary conditions. We show that the resulting tensors reproduce the closed-string spectrum with high accuracy and generate stable renormalization-group (RG) flows under the tensor complex renormalization algorithm. Moreover, we identify a controllable exactly marginal deformation at the level of a single tensor, enabling flows that move continuously along the
c=1 moduli space. This framework establishes a concrete lattice-level route toward describing a broad class of 2D irrational CFTs.
The novel concept of entanglement renormalization and its corresponding tensor network renormalization technique have been highly successful in developing a controlled real-space renormalization group (RG) scheme. Numerically approximate fixed-point (FP) tensors are widely used to extract the conformal data of the underlying conformal field theory (CFT) describing critical phenomena. In this paper, we present an explicit analytical construction of the FP tensor for 2D rational CFT. We define it as a correlation function between the “boundary-changing operators” (BCO) on triangles. Our construction fully captures all the real-space RG conditions. We also provide concrete examples, such as Ising, Yang-Lee, and tricritical Ising models, to compute the scaling dimensions explicitly based on the corresponding FP tensor. The BCO descendants turn out to be an optimal basis such that truncation in bond dimensions naturally produces comparable accuracies with the leading existing FP algorithms. Interestingly, our construction of FP tensors is closely related to a strange correlator, where the holographic picture naturally emerges. Our results also open a new door toward understanding CFT in higher dimensions.
On the lattice, a renormalization group (RG) flow for two-dimensional partition functions expressed as a tensor network can be obtained using the tensor network renormalization (TNR) algorithm [G. Evenbly, G. Vidal, Phys. Rev. Lett. 115 (18), 180405 (2015)]. In this work we explain how to extend TNR to field theories in the continuum. First, a short-distance length scale
1/Λ is introduced in the continuum partition function by smearing the fields. The resulting object is still defined in the continuum but has no fluctuations at distances shorter than
1/Λ. An infinitesimal coarse-graining step is then generated by the combined action of a
rescaling operator
L and a
disentangling operator
K that implements a quasi-local field redefinition. As demonstrated for a free boson in two dimensions, continuous TNR exactly preserves translation and rotation symmetries and can generate a proper RG flow. Moreover, from a critical fixed point of this RG flow one can then extract the conformal data of the underlying conformal field theory.
Tensor network methods are playing a central role in multiple disciplines of modern quantum physics, such as condensed matter physics, quantum information and quantum gravity. Based on renormalization group (RG) ideas, they provide a large class of variational ansatz for quantum many-body systems. There are various tensor network structures which are suited for different systems based on their entanglement structures, such as matrix product states (MPS), projected entangled pair states (PEPS), multi-scale entanglement renormalization ansatz (MERA). Numerous techniques involving coarse-graining tensor networks have been developed, such as tensor renormalization group (TRG), tensor network renormalization (TNR) and its variants. \n \nFirst, we study the generalization of MERA to continuous systems, or cMERA, which is expected to become a powerful variational ansatz for the ground state of strongly interacting quantum field theories. We investigate, in the simpler context of Gaussian cMERA for free theories, the extent to which the cMERA state
ketPsicM with finite UV cut-off
Lambda can capture the spacetime symmetries of the ground state
ketPsi. For a free boson conformal field theory (CFT) in 1+1 dimensions as a concrete example, we build a quasi-local unitary transformation
V that maps
ketPsi into
ketPsicM and show two main results. (i) Any spacetime symmetry of the ground state
ketPsi is also mapped by
V into a spacetime symmetry of the cMERA
ketPsicM. However, while in the CFT the stress-energy tensor
Tmunu(x) (in terms of which all the spacetime symmetry generators are expressed) is local, the corresponding cMERA stress-energy tensor
TmunucM(x)=VTmunu(x)Vdagger is quasi-local. (ii) From the cMERA, we can extract quasi-local scaling operators
OalphacM(x) characterized by the exact same scaling dimensions
Deltaalpha, conformal spins
salpha, operator product expansion coefficients
Calphabetagamma, and central charge
c as the original CFT. We argue that these results should also apply to interacting theories. \n \nSecond we extend TNR to field theories in the continuum. A short-distance length scale
1/Lambda is introduced in the continuum partition function by smearing the fields. The resulting object is still defined in the continuum but has no fluctuations at distances shorter than
1/Lambda. An infinitesimal coarse-graining step is then generated by the combined action of a \\textit{rescaling} operator
mathfrakL and a \\textit{disentangling} operator
mathfrakK that implements a quasilocal field redefinition. As demonstrated for a free boson in two dimensions, continuous TNR exactly preserves translation and rotation symmetries and can generate a proper RG flow. Moreover, from a critical fixed point of this RG flow one can then extract the conformal data of the underlying conformal field theory. \n \nLeaving behind tensor network methods, we explore the universal structure that emerges from the eigenvectors of the reduced density matrix (RDM) for 1+1 dimensional critical lattice systems. Using the Ising model as an example, we demonstrate that the large-weight eigenvectors are related to the low-lying states of the underlying CFT with suitable boundary conditions by a conformal map, and they transform accordingly under the Virasoro generators. \n \nFinally, using the quantum renormalization group (QRG), we derive the bulk geometry that emerges in the holographic dual of the fermionic U(
N) vector model at a nonzero charge density. The obstruction that prohibits the metallic state from being smoothly deformable to the direct product state under the renormalization group flow gives rise to a horizon at a finite radial coordinate in the bulk. The region outside the horizon is described by the Lifshitz geometry with a higher-spin hair determined by microscopic details of the boundary theory. On the other hand, the interior of the horizon is not described by any Riemannian manifold, as it exhibits an algebraic non-locality. The non-local structure inside the horizon carries the information on the shape of the filled Fermi sea.
Loop optimization for tensor network renormalization (loop-TNR) is a real-space renormalization group algorithm suitable for studying 1+1D critical systems. While the original proposal by Yang et al. focused on classical models, we extend this algorithm with new techniques to enable accurate and efficient extraction of conformal data from critical quantum models. Benchmark results are provided for a number of quantum models, including ones described by non-minimal or non-unitary conformal field theories, showcasing both the strengths and limitations of loop-TNR. We discuss the subtle issue of non-analytic finite size effect in quantum lattice models and its impact on loop-TNR, and propose the use of virtual-space transfer-matrix to circumvent it, using the XY model as a demonstration. We then generalize loop-TNR to fermionic systems by incorporating Grassmann numbers, and benchmark the generalized algorithm on the t-V model. \n \nNext, we demonstrate a non-trivial application of loop-TNR by studying the 1D domain wall between untwisted and twisted 2D lattice gauge theories of finite groups G. We numerically study such domain walls for G = Z_N (with N<6) using loop-TNR, and discover a large class of gapless models. We also study the physical mechanism for these gapless domain walls and propose quantum field theory descriptions that agree perfectly with our numerical results. By taking advantage of the classification and construction of twisted gauge models using group cohomology theory, we systematically construct general lattice models to realize gapless domain walls for arbitrary finite symmetry group G. Such constructions can be generalized into arbitrary dimensions and might provide us a systematical way to study gapless domain walls and topological quantum phase transitions.