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Angelos Fotopoulos

Publications and source records attributed to Angelos Fotopoulos.

14 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2022

Celestial Yang-Mills Amplitudes and D=4 Conformal Blocks

We discuss the properties of recently constructed "single-valued" celestial four-gluon amplitudes. We show that the amplitude factorizes into the "current" part and the "scalar" part. The current factor is given by the group-dependent part of the Wess-Zumino-Witten correlator of four holomorphic currents with a non-vanishing level of Kač-Moody algebra. The scalar factor can be expressed in terms of a complex integral of the Koba-Nielsen form, similar to the integrals describing four-point correlators in Coulomb gas models and, more generally, in the infinite central charge limit of Liouville theory. The scalar part can be also obtained by a dimensional reduction of a single D=4 conformal block and the shadow block from Minkowski space to the celestial sphere.

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arXiv2022

Elements of Celestial Conformal Field Theory

In celestial holography, four-dimensional scattering amplitudes are considered as two-dimensional conformal correlators of a putative two-dimensional celestial conformal field theory (CCFT). The simplest way of converting momentum space amplitudes into CCFT correlators is by taking their Mellin transforms with respect to light-cone energies. For massless particles, like gluons, however, such a construction leads to three-point and four-point correlators that vanish everywhere except for a measure zero hypersurface of celestial coordinates. This is due to the four-dimensional momentum conservation law that constrains the insertion points of the operators associated with massless particles. These correlators are reminiscent of Coulomb gas correlators that, in the absence of background charges, vanish due to charge conservation. We supply the background momentum by coupling Yang-Mills theory to a background dilaton field, with the (complex) dilaton source localized on the celestial sphere. This picture emerges from the physical interpretation of the solutions of the system of differential equations discovered by Banerjee and Ghosh. We show that the solutions can be written as Mellin transforms of the amplitudes evaluated in such a dilaton background. The resultant three-gluon and four-gluon amplitudes are single-valued functions of celestial coordinates enjoying crossing symmetry and all other properties expected from standard CFT correlators. We use them to extract OPEs and compare them with the OPEs extracted from multi-gluon celestial amplitudes without a dilaton background. We perform the conformal block decomposition of the four-gluon single-valued correlator and determine the dimensions, spin and group representations of the entire primary field spectrum of the Yang-Mills sector of CCFT.

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arXiv2021

Conformal Blocks from Celestial Gluon Amplitudes II: Single-valued Correlators

In a recent paper, here referred to as part I, we considered the celestial four-gluon amplitude with one gluon represented by the shadow transform of the corresponding primary field operator. This correlator is ill-defined because it contains branch points related to the presence of conformal blocks with complex spin. In this work, we adopt a procedure similar to minimal models and construct a single-valued completion of the shadow correlator, in the limit when the shadow is "soft." By following the approach of Dotsenko and Fateev, we obtain an integral representation of such a single-valued correlator. This allows inverting the shadow transform and constructing a single-valued celestial four-gluon amplitude. This amplitude is drastically different from the original Mellin amplitude. It is defined over the entire complex plane and has correct crossing symmetry, OPE and bootstrap properties. It agrees with all known OPEs of celestial gluon operators. The conformal block spectrum consists of primary fields with dimensions $Δ=m+i λ$, with integer $m\geq 1$ and various, but always integer spin, in all group representations contained in the product of two adjoint representations.

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arXiv2021

Conformal Blocks from Celestial Gluon Amplitudes

In celestial conformal field theory, gluons are represented by primary fields with dimensions $Δ=1+iλ$, $λ\in\mathbb{R}$ and spin $J=\pm 1$, in the adjoint representation of the gauge group. All two- and three-point correlation functions of these fields are zero as a consequence of four-dimensional kinematic constraints. Four-point correlation functions contain delta-function singularities enforcing planarity of four-particle scattering events. We relax these constraints by taking a shadow transform of one field and perform conformal block decomposition of the corresponding correlators. We compute the conformal block coefficients. When decomposed in channels that are "compatible" in two and four dimensions, such four-point correlators contain conformal blocks of primary fields with dimensions $Δ=2+M+iλ$, where $M\ge 0$ is an integer, with integer spin $J=-M,-M+2,\dots,M-2,M$. They appear in all gauge group representations obtained from a tensor product of two adjoint representations. When decomposed in incompatible channels, they also contain primary fields with continuous complex spin, but with positive integer dimensions.

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arXiv2020

Extended Super BMS Algebra of Celestial CFT

We study two-dimensional celestial conformal field theory describing four-dimensional ${\cal N}=1$ supergravity/Yang-Mills systems and show that the underlying symmetry is a supersymmetric generalization of BMS symmetry. We construct fermionic conformal primary wave functions and show how they are related via supersymmetry to their bosonic partners. We use soft and collinear theorems of supersymmetric Einstein-Yang-Mills theory to derive the OPEs of the operators associated to massless particles. The bosonic and fermionic soft theorems are shown to form a sequence under supersymmetric Ward identities. In analogy with the energy momentum tensor, the supercurrents are shadow transforms of soft gravitino operators and generate an infinite-dimensional supersymmetry algebra. The algebra of $\mathfrak{sbms}_4$ generators agrees with the expectations based on earlier work on the asymptotic symmetry group of supergravity. We also show that the supertranslation operator can be written as a product of holomorphic and anti-holomorphic supercurrents.

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arXiv2020

On Sugawara construction on Celestial Sphere

Conformally soft gluons are conserved currents of the Celestial Conformal Field Theory (CCFT) and generate a Kac-Moody algebra. We study celestial amplitudes of Yang-Mills theory, which are Mellin transforms of gluon amplitudes and take the double soft limit of a pair of gluons. In this manner we construct the Sugawara energy-momentum tensor of the CCFT. We verify that conformally soft gauge bosons are Virasoro primaries of the CCFT under the Sugawara energy-momentum tensor. The Sugawara tensor though does not generate the correct conformal transformations for hard states. In Einstein-Yang- Mills (EYM) theory, we consider an alternative construction of the energy-momentum tensor, similar to the double copy construction which relates gauge theory amplitudes with gravity ones. This energy momentum tensor has the correct properties to generate conformal transformations for both soft and hard states. We extend this construction to supertranslations.

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arXiv2019

Extended BMS Algebra of Celestial CFT

We elaborate on the proposal of flat holography in which four-dimensional physics is encoded in two-dimensional celestial conformal field theory (CCFT). The symmetry underlying CCFT is the extended BMS symmetry of (asymptotically) flat spacetime. We use soft and collinear theorems of Einstein-Yang-Mills theory to derive the OPEs of BMS field operators generating superrotations and supertranslations. The energy-momentum tensor, given by a shadow transform of a soft graviton operator, implements superrotations in the Virasoro subalgebra of $\mathfrak{bms_4}$. Supertranslations can be obtained from a single translation generator along the light-cone direction by commuting it with the energy-momentum tensor. This operator also originates from a soft graviton and generates a flow of conformal dimensions. All supertranslations can be assembled into a single primary conformal field operator on celestial sphere.

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arXiv2019

Primary Fields in Celestial CFT

The basic ingredient of CCFT holography is to regard four-dimensional amplitudes describing conformal wave packets as two-dimensional conformal correlation functions of the operators associated to external particles. By construction, these operators transform as quasi-primary fields under SL(2,C) conformal symmetry group of the celestial sphere. We derive the OPE of the CCFT energy-momentum tensor with the operators representing gauge bosons and show that they transform as Virasoro primaries under diffeomorphisms of the celestial sphere.

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arXiv2019

Soft Limits of Yang-Mills Amplitudes and Conformal Correlators

We study tree-level celestial amplitudes in Yang-Mills theory -- Mellin transforms of multi-gluon scattering amplitudes that convert them into the correlators of conformal primary fields on two-dimensional celestial sphere. By using purely field-theoretical methods, we show that the soft conformal limit of celestial amplitudes, in which one of the primary field operators associated to gauge bosons becomes a dimension one current, is dominated by the contributions of low-energy soft particles. This result confirms conclusions reached by using Yang-Mills theory formulated in curvilinear coordinates, as pioneered by Strominger. By using well-known collinear limits of Yang-Mills amplitudes, we derive the OPE rules for the primary fields and the holomorphic currents arising in the conformally soft limit. The Ward identities following from OPE have the same form as the identities derived by using soft theorems.

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arXiv2010

Pomerons and BCFW recursion relations for strings on D-branes

We derive pomeron vertex operators for bosonic strings and superstrings in the presence of D-branes. We demonstrate how they can be used in order to compute the Regge behavior of string amplitudes on D-branes and the amplitude of ultrarelativistic D-brane scattering. After a lightning review of the BCFW method, we proceed in a classification of the various BCFW shifts possible in a field/string theory in the presence of defects/D-branes. The BCFW shifts present several novel features, such as the possibility of performing single particle momentum shifts, due to the breaking of momentum conservation in the directions normal to the defect. Using the pomeron vertices we show that superstring amplitudes on the disc involving both open and closed strings should obey BCFW recursion relations. As a particular example, we analyze explicitly the case of 1 -> 1 scattering of level one closed string states off a D-brane. Finally, we investigate whether the eikonal Regge regime conjecture holds in the presence of D-branes.

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arXiv2008

Holographic approach to deformations of NS5-brane distributions and exact CFTs

We consider general planar deformations of a circular distribution of NS5-branes. The near-horizon region of the latter admits, after a T-duality transformation, an exact conformal-field-theory description in terms of the coset model SU(2)/U(1) X SL(2,R)/U(1). We derive the exactly marginal operators corresponding to an infinitesimal planar deformation using the conjectured holography between the coset model and the little string theory that resides on the worldvolume of the NS5-branes. Subsequently, we perform a complementary analysis of the same deformations using the associated N=1 supersymmetric sigma model and verify the holographic correspondence. We explicitly demonstrate a precise match between the two approaches which rests upon a delicate interplay between exact conformal-field-theory operators and their semiclassical realizations in terms of target-space variables.

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arXiv2005

D-branes and SQCD in Non-Critical Superstring Theory

Using exact boundary conformal field theory methods we analyze the D-brane physics of a specific four-dimensional non-critical superstring theory which involves the N=2 SL(2)/U(1) Kazama-Suzuki model at level 1. Via the holographic duality of hep-th/9907178 our results are relevant for D-brane dynamics in the background of NS5-branes and D-brane dynamics near a conifold singularity. We pay special attention to a configuration of D3- and D5-branes that realizes N=1 supersymmetric QCD and discuss the massless spectrum and classical moduli of this setup in detail. We also comment briefly on the implications of this construction for the recently proposed generalization of the AdS/CFT correspondence by Klebanov and Maldacena within the setting of non-critical superstrings.

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arXiv2005

D-branes and extended characters in SL(2,R)/U(1)

We present a detailed study of D-branes in the axially gauged SL(2,R)/U(1) coset conformal field theory for integer level k. Our analysis is based on the modular bootstrap approach and utilizes the extended SL(2,R)/U(1) characters and the embedding of the parafermionic coset algebra in the N=2 superconformal algebra. We propose three basic classes of boundary states corresponding to D0-, D1- and D2-branes. We verify that these boundary states satisfy the Cardy consistency conditions and discuss their physical properties. The D0- and D1-branes agree with those found in earlier work by Ribault and Schomerus using different methods (descent from the Euclidean AdS3 model). The D2-branes are new. They are not, in general, space-filling but extend from the asymptotic circle at infinity up to a circular boundary at some distance from the tip of the cigar.

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