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Boundary Scattering in 1+1 Dimensions as an Aharanov-Bohm Effect

Surya Ganguli·Petr Horava·Anthony Ndirango
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Abstract

The boundary scattering problem in 1+1 dimensional CFT is relevant to a multitude of areas of physics, ranging from the Kondo effect in condensed matter theory to tachyon condensation in string theory. Invoking a correspondence between CFT on 1+1 dimensional manifolds with boundaries and Chern-Simons gauge theory on 2+1 dimensional Z_2 orbifolds, we show that the 1+1 dimensional conformal boundary scattering problem can be reformulated as an Aharonov-Bohm effect experienced by chiral edge states moving on a 1+1 dimensional boundary of the corresponding 2+1 dimensional Chern-Simons system. The secretly topological origin of this physics leads to a new and simple derivation of the scattering of a massless scalar field on the line interacting with a sinusoidal boundary potential.

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Surya Ganguli, Petr Horava, Anthony Ndirango. 2005-01-28. Boundary Scattering in 1+1 Dimensions as an Aharanov-Bohm Effect. https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0501233

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