arXiv subjects

Alessandro Vichi

Publications and source records attributed to Alessandro Vichi.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Analytic Boundaries of Infinite-Spin-Tower Amplitudes from Hidden Zero

We study the general form of meromorphic amplitudes that are compatible with unitarity, analyticity, crossing symmetry, polynomial boundedness and the hidden-zero and corresponding splitting conditions. These amplitudes are infinite-spin-tower (IST) amplitudes and are characterized by the distribution of poles. With infinitely many equidistant poles, the IST amplitudes reduce to Veneziano amplitudes. We construct such unitary amplitudes in a primal way (rule in) and find the bounds analytically. The allowed region we derive is smaller than, but close to, the region allowed by the positivity bounds (rule out). We argue that, with the conditions imposed, the analytic boundary we derive is the largest possible boundary in the primal construction of meromorphic amplitudes. This type of IST amplitude can also be extended to the fully crossing-symmetric case related to the Virasoro-Shapiro amplitude. We found from the IST amplitudes that graviton pole imposes unitarity constraints on UV spectrum.

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arXiv2026

Thermal One-point Functions and Asymptotic CFT Data: QFT in AdS

We investigate the thermal partition and one-point functions of the three-dimensional conformal field theory dual to a massive interacting scalar field in AdS$_4$. Using thermal inversion formulas, we determine the asymptotic behaviour of the spectral density and OPE coefficients involving heavy operators at fixed spin. We first analyse these CFT data for the generalised free field, corresponding to the non-interacting bulk theory. Then we compute the first-order perturbative corrections induced by the cubic and quartic bulk interactions. The thermal observables considered here probe a sector associated with operators of large dimension and, in the bulk description, a regime dominated by states with large particle number. This regime remains comparatively unexplored even in generalised free field theory. Remarkably, the asymptotic formulas obtained from thermal inversion remain quantitatively accurate far from the asymptotic regime, describing CFT data reliably already at intermediate conformal weights. Our results show that this feature survives the inclusion of bulk interactions and provide new analytic control over heavy-state data in conformal field theories.

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arXiv2026

Primal Bootstrap for Pion Scattering at Large-N

We introduce a basis for tree-level meromorphic scattering amplitudes suitable for describing pion scattering in the large-N limit. The basis is constructed as linear combinations of Lovelace-Shapiro-like amplitudes with varying Regge slopes and intercepts. The resulting amplitudes satisfy by construction the fundamental requirements of analyticity, crossing symmetry, and Regge behavior. We analyze their behavior in specific kinematical regimes, including the high-energy fixed-angle limit. We also show that finite linear combinations of our basis elements need not violate unitarity. Nonetheless, because unitarity is not imposed by construction, we enforce it a posteriori by requiring positivity of the partial-wave decomposition. This condition can be formulated as an optimization problem and solved numerically. The solutions to this primal bootstrap problem yield meromorphic amplitudes that satisfy all the aforementioned constraints. We compare several observables with the bounds obtained from the dual positivity conditions and show that our family of amplitudes spans the full allowed parameter space. With appropriate modifications, this method can be extended to construct amplitude families for broader applications.

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arXiv2026

Thermal effective action for the $O(N)$ vector model

We compute the leading coefficients of the thermal effective action for the critical O(N) vector model in three dimensions, in the large-N limit in presence of non vanishing angular twist. At high temperature, the partition function on a product of a two-dimensional spatial manifold and a thermal circle admits a Kaluza-Klein reduction to a local effective action on the spatial slice, whose coefficients encode universal CFT data such as the Casimir energy and the response to a Kaluza-Klein gauge field. We determine these coefficients through two independent computations: an evaluation of the twisted partition function on the two-sphere in the high-temperature limit, and a direct path-integral computation on a generic weakly curved background. The two methods yield consistent results, providing a non-trivial check of the thermal effective action framework.

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arXiv2025

Bounds on Abelian Currents in 4d CFTs

We study four-dimensional conformal field theories (CFTs) with an abelian $U(1)$ global symmetry using the conformal bootstrap approach. We obtain numerical bounds on the scaling dimensions of low-lying operators, the stress-tensor central charge, and a particular combination of the 't Hooft anomaly and the current central charge. Our analysis provides the first non-perturbative constraints on four-dimensional CFTs with conserved abelian currents and establishes a framework that can be extended to theories with non-abelian global symmetries.

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arXiv2025

A Bootstrap Study of Confinement in AdS

Yang-Mills theory in AdS$_{4}$ with Dirichlet boundary conditions is expected to undergo a transition as the AdS radius varies, since the boundary data is incompatible with confinement in flat space. Various mechanisms have been proposed for the disappearance of the Dirichlet boundary condition. From the boundary viewpoint, the associated $3d$ CFT is a deformation of a generalised free theory of non-Abelian conserved currents, with the deformation governed by the bulk gauge coupling. We test these scenarios by deriving non-perturbative constraints from the numerical conformal bootstrap of the four-point function of non-Abelian conserved currents. We rule out the scenario in which the boundary current decouples. Bounds on the lightest scalar operators disfavour a bulk Higgs mechanism and instead point to a transition driven by a scalar singlet becoming marginal. We also obtain bounds on other scalar operators and on the current central charge, and we refine character-based techniques incorporating parity and charge-conjugation symmetry to determine the operator spectrum of the $3d$ Generalised Free Vector theory. These results may be of independent interest beyond Yang-Mills theory in AdS.

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arXiv2025

Heavy-Heavy-Light Asymptotics from Thermal Correlators

We revisit the calculation of spectral densities and heavy-heavy-light (HHL) operator product expansion (OPE) coefficients in three-dimensional conformal field theories using thermal one-point functions on $S^1 \times S^2$. A central element of our analysis is a new inversion formula for one-point functions which is derived via Casimir differential equations. We develop systematic expansions of the spectral density and HHL OPE coefficients in the regime of large $\Delta_H$. We validate our analytic tools by comparing the results with the partial wave expansions of thermal one-point functions in free field theories. The algorithms developed for these expansions make full use of Casimir recursion relations, thereby extending their applicability into the heavy exchange regime. In the end, we observe excellent agreement with our analytic predictions and an improvement of up to three orders of magnitude compared to all previous leading order estimates of the CFT data even for moderate values of $\Delta_H$.

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arXiv2024

Thermal One-point Functions and Their Partial Wave Decomposition

In this work we address partial wave decompositions of thermal one-point functions in conformal field theories on $S^1 \times S^{d-1}$. With the help of Casimir differential equations we develop efficient algorithms to compute the relevant conformal blocks for an external field of arbitrary spin and with any spin exchange along the thermal circle, at least in three dimensions. This is achieved by identifying solutions to the Casimir equations with a special class of spherical functions in the harmonic analysis of the conformal group. The resulting blocks are then applied to study the decomposition of one-point functions of the scalar $\phi^2$ and the stress tensor $T$ for a three-dimensional free scalar field $\phi$. We are able to read off averaged OPE coefficients into exchanged fields of high weight and spin for a complete set of tensor structures. We also extract an asymptotic behaviour of conformal blocks and use it to analyse the density of heavy-heavy-light OPE coefficients for spinning operators, comparing it with semi-classical predictions, such as the dimensions of operators at large charge.

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arXiv2024

Exploring Replica-Potts CFTs in Two Dimensions

We initiate a numerical conformal bootstrap study of CFTs with $S_n \ltimes (S_Q)^n$ global symmetry. These include CFTs that can be obtained as coupled replicas of two-dimensional critical Potts models. Particular attention is paid to the special case $S_3 \ltimes (S_3)^3$, which governs the critical behaviour of three coupled critical 3-state Potts models, a multi-scalar realisation of a (potentially) non-integrable CFT in two dimensions. The model has been studied in earlier works using perturbation theory, transfer matrices, and Monte Carlo simulations. This work represents an independent non-perturbative analysis. Our results are in agreement with previous determinations: we obtain an allowed peninsula within parameter space for the scaling dimensions of the three lowest-lying operators in the theory, which contains the earlier predictions for these scaling dimensions. Additionally, we derive numerous bounds on admissible scaling dimensions in the theory, which are compatible with earlier results. Our work sets the necessary groundwork for a future precision study of these theories in the conformal bootstrap.

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arXiv2024

Positivity Bounds on Massive Vectors

In this paper, we explore positivity bounds for the effective field theory~(EFT) of a single weakly coupled massive vector field. The presence of both mass and spin makes the crossing properties of the amplitudes vastly complicated -- we address this by parametrizing the amplitudes as products of a polarization matrix and a vector of appropriately chosen functions with simpler crossing properties. The resulting framework involves sum rules and null constraints that allows us to constrain any combination of low-energy observables, such as EFT amplitudes. By varying the value of the vector mass over the cutoff scale, some of our bounds asymptote to the bounds obtained in the context of photons and massless scalars. This work paves the way for future applications to e.g. non-abelian massive vectors, glueballs and theories with spin larger than one.

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arXiv2023

Bootstrapping mesons at large $N$: Regge trajectory from spin-two maximization

We continue the investigation of large $N$ QCD from a modern bootstrap perspective, focusing on the mesons. We make the natural spectral assumption that the $2 \to 2$ pion amplitude must contain, above the spin-one rho meson, a massive resonance of spin two. By maximizing its coupling we find a very interesting extremal solution of the dual bootstrap problem, which appears to contain at least a full Regge trajectory. Its low-lying states are in uncanny quantitative agreement with the meson masses in the real world.

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arXiv2023

Adding subtractions: comparing the impact of different Regge behaviors

Dispersion relations let us leverage the analytic structure of scattering amplitudes to derive constraints such as bounds on EFT coefficients. An important input is the large-energy behavior of the amplitude. In this paper, we systematically study how different large-energy behavior affects EFT bounds for the $2 \to 2$ amplitude of complex scalars coupled to photons, gravity, both, or neither. In many cases we find that singly-subtracted dispersion relations (1SDRs) yield exactly the same bounds as doubly subtracted relations (2SDRs). However, we identify another assumption, which we call "$t$-channel dominance," that significantly strengthens the EFT bounds. This assumption, which amounts to the requirement that the $++ \to ++$ amplitude has no $s$-channel exchange, is justified in certain cases and is analogous to the condition that the isospin-2 channel does not contribute to the pion amplitude. Using this assumption in the absence of massless exchanges, we find that the allowed region for the complex scalar EFT is identical to one recently discussed for pion scattering at large-$N$. In the case of gravity and a gauge field, we are able to derive a number of interesting bounds. These include an upper bound for $G$ in terms of the gauge coupling $e^2$ and the leading dispersive EFT coefficient, which is reminiscent of the weak gravity conjecture. In the $e \to 0$ limit, we find that assuming smeared 1SDRs plus $t$-channel dominance restores positivity on the leading EFT coefficient whose positivity was spoiled by the inclusion of gravity. We interpret this to mean that the negativity of that coefficient in the presence of gravity would imply that the global $U(1)$ symmetry must be gauged.

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arXiv2023

Spinning Partial Waves for Scattering Amplitudes in $d$ Dimensions

Partial wave decomposition is one of the main tools within the modern S-matrix studies. We present a method to compute partial waves for $2\to2$ scattering of spinning particles in arbitrary spacetime dimension. We identify partial waves as matrix elements of the rotation group with definite covariance properties under a subgroup. This allows to use a variety of techniques from harmonic analysis in order to construct a novel algebra of weight-shifting operators. All spinning partial waves are generated by the action of these operators on a set of known scalar seeds. The text is accompanied by a {\it Mathematica} notebook to automatically generate partial waves. These results pave the way to a systematic studies of spinning S-matrix bootstrap and positivity bounds.

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arXiv2023

Non-Abelian currents bootstrap

We initiate the study of correlation functions of non-Abelian spin-1 conserved current in three dimensional conformal field theories using numerical conformal bootstrap. We discuss the general framework and apply it to the particular cases of $SU(N)$ and $O(N)$ global symmetry. In both cases we obtain general bounds on operator dimensions. In the large-$N$ limit our bounds show features in correspondence of the expected position of fermionic QED$_3$ in three dimensions, as well as other interesting theories. By imposing gaps inspired by the spectrum of QED$_3$ at large-$N$, we manage to restrict the plane of certain operator dimensions to a small island, where QED$_3$ must live.

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arXiv2022

Rigorous Bounds on Light-by-Light Scattering

We bound EFT coefficients appearing in $2 \to 2$ photon scattering amplitudes in four dimensions. After reviewing unitarity and positivity conditions in this context, we use dispersion relations and crossing symmetry to compute sum rules and null constraints. This allows us to derive new rigorous bounds on operators with four, six, and eight derivatives, including two-sided bounds on their ratios. Comparing with a number of partial UV completions, we find that some of our bounds are saturated by the amplitudes that arise from integrating out a massive scalar or axion, while others suggest the existence of unknown amplitudes.

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arXiv2022

A large-$N$ tensor model with four supercharges

We study a supersymmetric tensor model with four supercharges and $O(N)^3$ global symmetry. The model is based on a chiral scalar superfield with three indices and quartic tetrahedral interaction in the superpotential, which is relevant below three dimensions. In the large-$N$ limit the model is dominated by melonic diagrams. We solve the Dyson-Schwinger equations in superspace for generic $d$ and extract the dimension of the chiral field and the dimensions of bilinear operators transforming in various representations of $O(N)^3$. We find that all operator dimensions are real and above the unitarity bound for $1<d<3$. Our results also agree with perturbative results in $3-\varepsilon$ expansion. Finally, we extract the large spin behaviour of bilinear operators and discuss the connection with lightcone bootstrap.

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arXiv2022

Bounding Violations of the Weak Gravity Conjecture

The black hole weak gravity conjecture (WGC) is a set of linear inequalities on the four-derivative corrections to Einstein--Maxwell theory. Remarkably, in four dimensions, these combinations appear in the $2 \to 2$ photon amplitudes, leading to the hope that the conjecture might be supported using dispersion relations. However, the presence of a pole arising in the forward limit due to graviton exchange greatly complicates the use of such arguments. In this paper, we apply recently developed numerical techniques to handle the graviton pole, and we find that standard dispersive arguments are not strong enough to imply the black hole WGC. Specifically, under a fairly typical set of assumptions, including weak coupling of the EFT and Regge boundedness, a small violation of the black hole WGC is consistent with unitarity and causality. We quantify the size of this violation, which vanishes in the limit where gravity decouples and also depends logarithmically on an infrared cutoff. We discuss the meaning of these bounds in various scenarios. We also implement a method for bounding amplitudes without manifestly positive spectral densities, which could be applied to any system of non-identical states, and we use it to improve bounds on the EFT of pure photons in absence of gravity.

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arXiv2021

Bootstrapping Heisenberg Magnets and their Cubic Instability

We study the critical $O(3)$ model using the numerical conformal bootstrap. In particular, we use a recently developed cutting-surface algorithm to efficiently map out the allowed space of CFT data from correlators involving the leading $O(3)$ singlet $s$, vector $ϕ$, and rank-2 symmetric tensor $t$. We determine their scaling dimensions to be $(Δ_{s}, Δ_ϕ, Δ_{t}) = (0.518942(51), 1.59489(59), 1.20954(23))$, and also bound various OPE coefficients. We additionally introduce a new "tip-finding" algorithm to compute an upper bound on the leading rank-4 symmetric tensor $t_4$, which we find to be relevant with $Δ_{t_4} < 2.99056$. The conformal bootstrap thus provides a numerical proof that systems described by the critical $O(3)$ model, such as classical Heisenberg ferromagnets at the Curie transition, are unstable to cubic anisotropy.

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