Nonunitary Conformal Field Theories with Boundary

Yifan Liu, Haruki Shimizu, Dongchang Liu +1 more

Boundary conformal field theory (BCFT) contains universal data that are usually accessed microscopically by imposing spatial boundaries on the lattice. In non-Hermitian many-body systems, however, changing boundary conditions can qualitatively reorganize spectra and eigenstates, and their boundary criticality remains elusive. Here, we introduce a periodic-chain spectroscopy to extract universal boundary quantities, such as the Affleck-Ludwig $g$-factor, directly from non-Hermitian bulk-critical quantum chains, avoiding the need to engineer microscopic open boundaries and circumventing subtle boundary effects in non-Hermitian systems. We illustrate our method with a $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric Ising realization of the real nonunitary Yang-Lee CFT and reveal a universal negative excited-to-ground ratio, which has no counterpart in unitary critical theories and provides a microscopic signature of nonunitarity. For the genuinely complex fixed points of the non-Hermitian five-state Potts chain, we extract intrinsically complex boundary coefficients, verify the exact Kramers-Wannier duality relation, and select the consistent analytic-continuation branch of the boundary states. Our results establish a route to nonunitary BCFT universal data using only knowledge of the bulk critical system, opening a window into non-Hermitian boundary criticality.

Roger E. Behrend, Paul A. Pearce, V. B. Petkova +1 more

Roger E. Behrend, Paul A. Pearce, V. B. Petkova +1 more

Abhishek Kumar, Kemal Aziz, Ahana Chakraborty +4 more

Measurement-induced phase transitions (MIPTs) are known to be described by nonunitary conformal field theories (CFTs) whose precise nature remains unknown. Most physical quantities of interest, such as the entanglement features of quantum trajectories, are described by boundary observables in this CFT. We introduce a transfer matrix approach to study the boundary spectrum of this field theory, and consider a variety of boundary conditions. We apply this approach numerically to monitored Haar and Clifford circuits, and to the measurement-only Ising model where the boundary scaling dimensions can be derived analytically. Our transfer matrix approach provides a systematic numerical tool to study the spectrum of MIPTs.

Paul A. Pearce, Jared J. Heymann, Thomas Quella

Abstract We consider unitary and nonunitary ( A , G ) coset minimal models on the cylinder with G = A , D , E . Elementary topological defects are implemented as non-contractible Verlinde, Pasquier and Ocneanu lines around the cylinder. The decomposition of compound defects, formed by fusing elementary defects together, is described by the Verlinde, Pasquier and Ocneanu graph fusion algebras. The action of the compound defects on the left- or right-vacuum boundary state builds the known conformal cylinder boundary conditions. Fusing these defects, in the presence of vacuum boundary conditions, reproduces the known general formulas for the conformal cylinder partition functions. We define the coset graph A ⊗ G / Z 2 , argue that it is a universal object and show that it encodes (i) the coset graph fusion algebra, (ii) the Affleck–Ludwig boundary g -factors, (iii) the defect g -factors given by quantum dimensions and (iv) the relative symmetry resolved Affleck–Ludwig entropies. Additionally, it is shown that the boundary and defect g -factors are related to the asymptotic counting of fusion paths on the coset graph. On the lattice, the defects are constructed as Yang–Baxter integrable seams including special braid and graph automorphism transfer matrices. Remarkably, many of the boundary conformal field theory (CFT) discrete structures, such as fusion matrices, modular matrices, quantum dimensions and defects, appear at the level of lattice Yang–Baxter integrable A - D - E restricted solid-on-solid models and these structures and their properties carry over to the CFT in the continuum scaling limit. Importantly, in the continuum scaling limit, the lattice transfer matrix T - and Y -system functional equations carry over to produce the coset graph fusion algebra for the defect lines. Moreover, the effective central charges and conformal weights are expressed in terms of dilogarithms of the braid and bulk asymptotics of the Y -system expressed in terms of the quantum dimensions.

Yevgeny Kats