arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Ingo Runkel.
We describe a class of examples of braided monoidal categories which are built from Hopf algebras in symmetric categories. The construction is motivated by a calculation in two-dimensional conformal field theory and is tailored to contain the braided monoidal categories occurring in the study of the Ising model, their generalisation to Tamabara-Yamagami categories, and categories occurring for symplectic fermions.
We review the definition of bulk and boundary conformal field theory in a way suited for logarithmic conformal field theory. The notion of a maximal bulk theory which can be non-degenerately joined to a boundary theory is defined. The purpose of this construction is to obtain the more complicated bulk theories from simpler boundary theories. We then describe the algebraic counterpart of the maximal bulk theory, namely the so-called full centre of an algebra in an abelian braided monoidal category. Finally, we illustrate the previous discussion in the example of the W(2,3)-model with central charge 0.
Studying two-dimensional field theories in the presence of defect lines naturally gives rise to monoidal categories: their objects are the different (topological) defect conditions, their morphisms are junction fields, and their tensor product describes the fusion of defects. These categories should be equipped with a duality operation corresponding to reversing the orientation of the defect line, providing a rigid and pivotal structure. We make this structure explicit in topological Landau-Ginzburg models with potential x^d, where defects are described by matrix factorisations of x^d-y^d. The duality allows to compute an action of defects on bulk fields, which we compare to the corresponding N=2 conformal field theories. We find that the two actions differ by phases.
This note is intended as an introduction to the functorial formulation of quantum field theories with defects. After some remarks about models in general dimension, we restrict ourselves to two dimensions - the lowest dimension in which interesting field theories with defects exist. We study in some detail the simplest example of such a model, namely a topological field theory with defects which we describe via lattice TFT. Finally, we give an application in algebra, where the defect TFT provides us with a functorial definition of the centre of an algebra. This involves changing the target category of commutative algebras into a bicategory. Throughout this paper, we emphasise the role of higher categories - in our case bicategories - in the description of field theories with defects.
We give a geometric description of the fusion rules of the affine Lie algebra su(2)_k at a positive integer level k in terms of the k-th power of the basic gerbe over the Lie group SU(2). The gerbe can be trivialised over conjugacy classes corresponding to dominant weights of su(2)_k via a 1-isomorphism. The fusion-rule coefficients are related to the existence of a 2-isomorphism between pullbacks of these 1-isomorphisms to a submanifold of SU(2) x SU(2) determined by the corresponding three conjugacy classes. This construction is motivated by its application in the description of junctions of maximally symmetric defect lines in the Wess-Zumino-Witten model.
A proposal for the bulk space of the logarithmic W(2,3)-triplet model at central charge zero is made. The construction is based on the idea that one may reconstruct the bulk theory of a rational conformal field theory from its boundary theory. The resulting bulk space is a quotient of the direct sum of projective representations, which is isomorphic, as a vector space, to the direct sum of tensor products of the irreducible representations with their projective covers. As a consistency check of our analysis we show that the partition function of the bulk theory is modular invariant, and that the boundary state analysis is compatible with the proposed annulus partition functions of this model.
In this paper we study a simple example of a two-parameter space of renormalisation group flows of defects in Virasoro minimal models. We use a combination of exact results, perturbation theory and the truncated conformal space approach to search for fixed points and investigate their nature. For the Ising model, we confirm the recent results of Fendley et al. In the case of central charge close to one, we find six fixed points, five of which we can identify in terms of known defects and one of which we conjecture is a new non-trivial conformal defect. We also include several new results on exact properties of perturbed defects and on the renormalisation group in the truncated conformal space approach.
Perturbing a Virasoro minimal model by the (1,3) primary bulk field results in an integrable field theory. In this paper, an infinite set of commuting conserved charges is obtained by considering defects: a one-parameter family of perturbed defect operators is given, and it is shown that these operators mutually commute, that they commute with the Hamiltonian of the perturbed CFT, and that they satisfy a T-system functional relation. The formulation in terms of perturbed defects is a modification of the original prescription for such charges by Bazhanov, Lukyanov and Zamolodchikov.
We investigate tensor products of matrix factorisations. This is most naturally done by formulating matrix factorisations in terms of bimodules instead of modules. If the underlying ring is C[x_1,...,x_N] we show that bimodule matrix factorisations form a monoidal category. This monoidal category has a physical interpretation in terms of defect lines in a two-dimensional Landau-Ginzburg model. There is a dual description via conformal field theory, which in the special case of W=x^d is an N=2 minimal model, and which also gives rise to a monoidal category describing defect lines. We carry out a comparison of these two categories in certain subsectors by explicitly computing 6j-symbols.
Given two two-dimensional conformal field theories, a domain wall -- or defect line -- between them is called invertible if there is another defect with which it fuses to the identity defect. A defect is called topological if it is transparent to the stress tensor. A conformal isomorphism between the two CFTs is a linear isomorphism between their state spaces which preserves the stress tensor and is compatible with the operator product expansion. We show that for rational CFTs there is a one-to-one correspondence between invertible topological defects and conformal isomorphisms if both preserve the rational symmetry. This correspondence is compatible with composition.
We show that a braided monoidal category C can be endowed with the structure of a right (and left) module category over C \times C. In fact, there is a family of such module category structures, and they are mutually isomorphic if and only if C allows for a twist. For the case that C is premodular we compute the internal End of the tensor unit of C, and we show that it is an Azumaya algebra if C is modular. As an application to two-dimensional rational conformal field theory, we show that the module categories describe the permutation modular invariant for models based on the product of two identical chiral algebras. It follows in particular that all permutation modular invariants are physical.
In this article we try to give a condensed panoramic view of the development of two-dimensional rational conformal field theory in the last twenty-five years.
We consider Frobenius algebras and their bimodules in certain abelian monoidal categories. In particular we study the Picard group of the category of bimodules over a Frobenius algebra, i.e. the group of isomorphism classes of invertible bimodules. The Rosenberg-Zelinsky sequence describes a homomorphism from the group of algebra automorphisms to the Picard group, which however is typically not surjective. We investigate under which conditions there exists a Morita equivalent Frobenius algebra for which the corresponding homomorphism is surjective. One motivation for our considerations is the orbifold construction in conformal field theory.
Starting from an abelian rigid braided monoidal category C we define an abelian rigid monoidal category C_F which captures some aspects of perturbed conformal defects in two-dimensional conformal field theory. Namely, for V a rational vertex operator algebra we consider the charge-conjugation CFT constructed from V (the Cardy case). Then C = Rep(V) and an object in C_F corresponds to a conformal defect condition together with a direction of perturbation. We assign to each object in C_F an operator on the space of states of the CFT, the perturbed defect operator, and show that the assignment factors through the Grothendieck ring of C_F. This allows one to find functional relations between perturbed defect operators. Such relations are interesting because they contain information about the integrable structure of the CFT.
This is part one of a two-part work that relates two different approaches to two-dimensional open-closed rational conformal field theory. In part one we review the definition of a Cardy algebra, which captures the necessary consistency conditions of the theory at genus 0 and 1. We investigate the properties of these algebras and prove uniqueness and existence theorems. One implication is that under certain natural assumptions, every rational closed CFT is extendable to an open-closed CFT. The relation of Cardy algebras to the solutions of the sewing constraints is the topic of part two.
Defects are a useful tool in the study of quantum field theories. This is illustrated in the example of two-dimensional conformal field theories. We describe how defect lines and their junction points appear in the description of symmetries and order-disorder dualities, as well as in the orbifold construction and a generalisation thereof that covers exceptional modular invariants.
The logarithmic triplet model W_2,3 at c=0 is studied. In particular, we determine the fusion rules of the irreducible representations from first principles, and show that there exists a finite set of representations, including all irreducible representations, that closes under fusion. With the help of these results we then investigate the possible boundary conditions of the W_2,3 theory. Unlike the familiar Cardy case where there is a consistent boundary condition for every representation of the chiral algebra, we find that for W_2,3 only a subset of representations gives rise to consistent boundary conditions. These then have boundary spectra with non-degenerate two-point correlators.
We review how modular categories, and commutative and non-commutative Frobenius algebras arise in rational conformal field theory. For Euclidean CFT we use an approach based on sewing of surfaces, and in the Minkowskian case we describe CFT by a net of operator algebras.