arXiv subjects

Andrea Manenti

Publications and source records attributed to Andrea Manenti.

13 recordsLinked to original sources

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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arXiv2024

Composite operators in $\mathcal{N}=4$ Super Yang-Mills

We consider four-point functions of protected, double- and single-trace operators in the large central charge limit. We use superconformal symmetry to disentangle the contribution of protected operators in the partial wave decomposition. With this information, we fix the non protected part of such correlators up to subleading order in the large central charge expansion. We particularly focus on the triple-trace sector of the correlator and comment on the connection to the holographic description of these correlators.

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arXiv2023

Spinning correlators in $\mathcal{N} = 2$ SCFTs: Superspace and AdS amplitudes

We study four-point functions of spinning operators in the flavor current multiplet in four dimensional $\mathcal{N}=2$ SCFTs, using superspace techniques. In particular we explicitly construct the differential operators relating the different components of the super-correlator. As a byproduct of our analysis, we report the computation of the four-point amplitudes of gluons in bosonic Yang-Mills theories on $\mathrm{AdS}_5$ and we give evidence of an AdS double copy relation between the gluon amplitude and its gravitational counterpart.

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arXiv2022

OPE coefficients in Argyres-Douglas theories

The calculation of physical quantities in certain quantum field theories such as those of the Argyres-Douglas type is notoriously hard, due to the lack of a Lagrangian description. Here we tackle this problem following two alternative approaches. On the one hand, we use localization on the four-sphere to compute two-correlators and OPE coefficients in Argyres-Douglas superconformal theories. On the other hand, we use the conformal bootstrap machinery to put stringent bounds on such coefficients, only relying on the knowledge of central charge and conformal dimension of the operators. We compare the results obtained with these two methods and find good agreement for all rank-one cases and for the rank-two Argyres-Douglas theories (A_1,A_4) and (A_1,A_5), in the moduli space of pure SU(5) and SU(6) super Yang-Mills. We also apply our results from localization to obtain bounds on the dimensions of the lightest neutral unprotected operators of the CFTs.

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arXiv2022

Rebooting quarter-BPS operators in $\mathcal{N}=4$ Super Yang-Mills

We start a systematic study of quarter-BPS operators in four-dimensional $\mathcal{N}=4$ Super Yang-Mills with gauge group $\mathrm{SU}(N)$ making use of recently developed tools in conformal field theory. We adapt the technology of embedding space tensor structures in four dimensions to the problem of computing R-symmetry tensor structures and we use the underlying chiral algebra to obtain the superconformal Ward identities. This allows us to fix the protected part of the four-point correlators, up to few ambiguities. As applications, we use the Lorentzian inversion formula to study the leading order OPE data in the large~$N$ supergravity limit and we make contact with the OPE limit of the five-point function of half-BPS operators.

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arXiv2021

Exploring $SU(N)$ adjoint correlators in $3d$

We use numerical bootstrap techniques to study correlation functions of scalars transforming in the adjoint representation of $SU(N)$ in three dimensions. We obtain upper bounds on operator dimensions for various representations and study their dependence on $N$. We discover new families of kinks, one of which could be related to bosonic QED${}_3$. We then specialize to the cases $N=3,4$, which have been conjectured to describe a phase transition respectively in the ferromagnetic complex projective model $CP^2$ and the antiferromagnetic complex projective model $ACP^{3}$. Lattice simulations provide strong evidence for the existence of a second order phase transition, while an effective field theory approach does not predict any fixed point. We identify a set of assumptions that constrain operator dimensions to small regions overlapping with the lattice predictions.

hep-th↗

arXiv2020

Bootstrapping mixed correlators in $\mathcal{N}=4$ Super Yang-Mills

We perform a numerical bootstrap study of the mixed correlator system containing the half-BPS operators of dimension two and three in $\mathcal N = 4$ Super Yang-Mills. This setup improves on previous works in the literature that only considered single correlators of one or the other operator. We obtain upper bounds on the leading twist in a given representation of the R-symmetry by imposing gaps on the twist of all operators rather than the dimension of a single one. As a result we find a tension between the large $N$ supergravity predictions and the numerical finite $N$ results already at $N\sim 100$. A few possible solutions are discussed: the extremal spectrum suggests that at large but finite $N$, in addition to the double trace operators, there exists a second tower of states with smaller dimension. We also obtain new bounds on the dimension of operators which were not accessible with a single correlator setup. Finally we consider bounds on the OPE coefficients of various operators. The results obtained for the OPE coefficient of the lightest scalar singlet show evidences of a two dimensional conformal manifold.

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arXiv2020

Differential operators for superconformal correlation functions

We present a systematic method to expand in components four dimensional superconformal multiplets. The results cover all possible $\mathcal{N} = 1$ multiplets and some cases of interest for $\mathcal{N} = 2$. As an application of the formalism we prove that certain $\mathcal{N} = 2$ spinning chiral operators (also known as "exotic" chiral primaries) do not admit a consistent three-point function with the stress tensor and therefore cannot be present in any local SCFT. This extends a previous proof in the literature which only applies to certain classes of theories. To each superdescendant we associate a superconformally covariant differential operator, which can then be applied to any correlator in superspace. In the case of three-point functions, we introduce a convenient representation of the differential operators that considerably simplifies their action. As a consequence it is possible to efficiently obtain the linear relations between the OPE coefficients of the operators in the same superconformal multiplet and in turn streamline the computation of superconformal blocks. We also introduce a Mathematica package to work with four dimensional superspace.

hep-th↗

arXiv2019

Thermal CFTs in momentum space

We study some aspects of conformal field theories at finite temperature in momentum space. We provide a formula for the Fourier transform of a thermal conformal block and study its analytic properties. In particular we show that the Fourier transform vanishes when the conformal dimension and spin are those of a "double twist" operator $Δ= 2Δ_ϕ+ \ell + 2n$. By analytically continuing to Lorentzian signature we show that the spectral density at high spatial momenta has support on the spectrum condition $|ω| > |k|$. This leads to a series of sum rules. Finally, we explicitly match the thermal block expansion with the momentum space Green's function at finite temperature in several examples.

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arXiv2019

Implications of ANEC for SCFTs in four dimensions

We explore consequences of the Averaged Null Energy Condition (ANEC) for scaling dimensions $Δ$ of operators in four-dimensional $\mathcal{N}=1$ superconformal field theories. We show that in many cases the ANEC bounds are stronger than the corresponding unitarity bounds on $Δ$. We analyze in detail chiral operators in the $(\frac12 j,0)$ Lorentz representation and prove that the ANEC implies the lower bound $Δ\ge\frac32j$, which is stronger than the corresponding unitarity bound for $j>1$. We also derive ANEC bounds on $(\frac12 j,0)$ operators obeying other possible shortening conditions, as well as general $(\frac12 j,0)$ operators not obeying any shortening condition. In both cases we find that they are typically stronger than the corresponding unitarity bounds. Finally, we elucidate operator-dimension constraints that follow from our $\mathcal{N}=1$ results for multiplets of $\mathcal{N}=2,4$ superconformal theories in four dimensions. By recasting the ANEC as a convex optimization problem and using standard semidefinite programming methods we are able to improve on previous analyses in the literature pertaining to the nonsupersymmetric case.

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arXiv2018

R-current three-point functions in 4d $\mathcal{N}=1$ superconformal theories

In 4d $\mathcal{N}=1$ superconformal field theories (SCFTs) the R-symmetry current, the stress-energy tensor, and the supersymmetry currents are grouped into a single object, the Ferrara-Zumino multiplet. In this work we study the most general form of three-point functions involving two Ferrara-Zumino multiplets and a third generic multiplet. We solve the constraints imposed by conservation in superspace and show that non-trivial solutions can only be found if the third multiplet is R-neutral and transforms in suitable Lorentz representations. In the process we give a prescription for counting independent tensor structures in superconformal three-point functions. Finally, we set the Grassmann coordinates of the Ferrara-Zumino multiplets to zero and extract all three-point functions involving two R-currents and a third conformal primary. Our results pave the way for bootstrapping the correlation function of four R-currents in 4d $\mathcal{N}=1$ SCFTs.

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arXiv2016

Theta dependence in Holographic QCD

We study the effects of the CP-breaking topological $θ$-term in the large $N_c$ QCD model by Witten, Sakai and Sugimoto with $N_f$ degenerate light flavors. We first compute the ground state energy density, the topological susceptibility and the masses of the lowest lying mesons, finding agreement with expectations from the QCD chiral effective action. Then, focusing on the $N_f=2$ case, we consider the baryonic sector and determine, to leading order in the small $θ$ regime, the related holographic instantonic soliton solutions. We find that while the baryon spectrum does not receive ${\cal O}(θ)$ corrections, this is not the case for observables like the electromagnetic form factor of the nucleons. In particular, it exhibits a dipole term, which turns out to be vector-meson dominated. The resulting neutron electric dipole moment, which is exactly the opposite as that of the proton, is of the same order of magnitude of previous estimates in the literature. Finally, we compute the CP-violating pion-nucleon coupling constant ${\bar g}_{πN N}$, finding that it is zero to leading order in the large $N_c$ limit.

hep-th↗

arXiv2016

Neutron electric dipole moment from gauge/string duality

We compute the electric dipole moment of nucleons in the large $N_c$ QCD model by Witten, Sakai and Sugimoto with $N_f=2$ degenerate massive flavors. Baryons in the model are instantonic solitons of an effective five-dimensional action describing the whole tower of mesonic fields. We find that the dipole electromagnetic form factor of the nucleons, induced by a finite topological $θ$ angle, exhibits complete vector meson dominance. We are able to evaluate the contribution of each vector meson to the final result - a small number of modes are relevant to obtain an accurate estimate. Extrapolating the model parameters to real QCD data, the neutron electric dipole moment is evaluated to be $d_n = 1.8 \cdot 10^{-16}\, θ\;e\cdot \mathrm{cm}$. The electric dipole moment of the proton is exactly the opposite.

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