arXiv subjects

Slava Rychkov

Publications and source records attributed to Slava Rychkov.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2023

Twist accumulation in conformal field theory. A rigorous approach to the lightcone bootstrap

We prove that in any unitary CFT, a twist gap in the spectrum of operator product expansion (OPE) of identical scalar primary operators (i.e. $ϕ\times ϕ$) implies the existence of a family of primary operators $\mathcal{O}_{τ, \ell}$ with spins $\ell \rightarrow \infty$ and twists $τ\rightarrow 2 Δ_ϕ$ in the same OPE spectrum. A similar twist-accumulation result is proven for any two-dimensional Virasoro-invariant, modular-invariant, unitary CFT with a normalizable vacuum and central charge $c > 1$, where we show that a twist gap in the spectrum of Virasoro primaries implies the existence of a family of Virasoro primaries $\mathcal{O}_{h, \bar{h}}$ with $h \rightarrow \infty$ and $\bar{h} \rightarrow \frac{c - 1}{24}$ (the same is true with $h$ and $\bar{h}$ interchanged). We summarize the similarity of the two problems and propose a general formulation of the lightcone bootstrap.

hep-th↗

arXiv2023

Four Lectures on the Random Field Ising Model, Parisi-Sourlas Supersymmetry, and Dimensional Reduction

Numerical evidence suggests that the Random Field Ising Model loses Parisi-Sourlas SUSY and the dimensional reduction property somewhere between 4 and 5 dimensions, while a related model of branched polymers retains these features in any $d$. These notes give a leisurely introduction to a recent theory, developed jointly with A. Kaviraj and E. Trevisani, which aims to explain these facts. Based on the lectures given in Cortona and at the IHES in 2022.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2023

Deligne Categories in Lattice Models and Quantum Field Theory, or Making Sense of $O(N)$ Symmetry with Non-integer $N$

When studying quantum field theories and lattice models, it is often useful to analytically continue the number of field or spin components from an integer to a real number. In spite of this, the precise meaning of such analytic continuations has never been fully clarified, and in particular the symmetry of these theories is obscure. We clarify these issues using Deligne categories and their associated Brauer algebras, and show that these provide logically satisfactory answers to these questions. Simple objects of the Deligne category generalize the notion of an irreducible representations, avoiding the need for such mathematically nonsensical notions as vector spaces of non-integer dimension. We develop a systematic theory of categorical symmetries, applying it in both perturbative and non-perturbative contexts. A partial list of our results is: categorical symmetries are preserved under RG flows; continuous categorical symmetries come equipped with conserved currents; CFTs with categorical symmetries are necessarily non-unitary.

hep-th↗

arXiv2023

Tensor RG approach to high-temperature fixed point

We study a renormalization group (RG) map for tensor networks that include two-dimensional lattice spin systems such as the Ising model. Numerical studies of such RG maps have been quite successful at reproducing the known critical behavior. In those numerical studies the RG map must be truncated to keep the dimension of the legs of the tensors bounded. Our tensors act on an infinite-dimensional Hilbert space, and our RG map does not involve any truncations. Our RG map has a trivial fixed point which represents the high-temperature fixed point. We prove that if we start with a tensor that is close to this fixed point tensor, then the iterates of the RG map converge in the Hilbert-Schmidt norm to the fixed point tensor. It is important to emphasize that this statement is not true for the simplest tensor network RG map in which one simply contracts four copies of the tensor to define the renormalized tensor. The linearization of this simple RG map about the fixed point is not a contraction due to the presence of so-called CDL tensors. Our work provides a first step towards the important problem of the rigorous study of RG maps for tensor networks in a neighborhood of the critical point.

math-ph↗

arXiv2022

Random Field Ising Model and Parisi-Sourlas Supersymmetry. Part II. Renormalization Group

We revisit perturbative RG analysis in the replicated Landau-Ginzburg description of the Random Field Ising Model near the upper critical dimension 6. Working in a field basis with manifest vicinity to a weakly-coupled Parisi-Sourlas supersymmetric fixed point (Cardy, 1985), we look for interactions which may destabilize the SUSY RG flow and lead to the loss of dimensional reduction. This problem is reduced to studying the anomalous dimensions of "leaders" -- lowest dimension parts of $S_n$-invariant perturbations in the Cardy basis. Leader operators are classified as non-susy-writable, susy-writable or susy-null depending on their symmetry. Susy-writable leaders are additionally classified as belonging to superprimary multiplets transforming in particular $\textrm{OSp}(d | 2)$ representations. We enumerate all leaders up to 6d dimension $Δ= 12$, and compute their perturbative anomalous dimensions (up to two loops). We thus identify two perturbations (with susy-null and non-susy-writable leaders) becoming relevant below a critical dimension $d_c \approx 4.2$ - $4.7$. This supports the scenario that the SUSY fixed point exists for all $3 < d \leq 6$, but becomes unstable for $d < d_c$.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2022

The fate of Parisi-Sourlas supersymmetry in Random Field models

By the Parisi-Sourlas conjecture, the critical point of a theory with random field (RF) disorder is described by a supersymmeric (SUSY) conformal field theory (CFT), related to a $d-2$ dimensional CFT without SUSY. Numerical studies indicate that this is true for the RF $ϕ^3$ model but not for RF $ϕ^4$ model in $d<5$ dimensions. Here we argue that the SUSY fixed point is not reached because of new relevant SUSY-breaking interactions. We use perturbative renormalization group in a judiciously chosen field basis, allowing systematic exploration of the space of interactions. Our computations agree with the numerical results for both cubic and quartic potential.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2021

Navigator Function for the Conformal Bootstrap

Current numerical conformal bootstrap techniques carve out islands in theory space by repeatedly checking whether points are allowed or excluded. We propose a new method for searching theory space that replaces the binary information "allowed"/"excluded" with a continuous "navigator" function that is negative in the allowed region and positive in the excluded region. Such a navigator function allows one to efficiently explore high-dimensional parameter spaces and smoothly sail towards any islands they may contain. The specific functions we introduce have several attractive features: they are everywhere well-defined, can be computed with standard methods, and evaluation of their gradient is immediate due to an SDP gradient formula that we provide. The latter property allows for the use of efficient quasi-Newton optimization methods, which we illustrate by navigating towards the 3d Ising island.

hep-th↗

arXiv2021

Distributions in CFT II. Minkowski Space

CFTs in Euclidean signature satisfy well-accepted rules, such as the convergent Euclidean OPE. It is nowadays common to assume that CFT correlators exist and have various properties also in Lorentzian signature. Some of these properties may represent extra assumptions, and it is an open question if they hold for familiar statistical-physics CFTs such as the critical 3d Ising model. Here we consider Wightman 4-point functions of scalar primaries in Lorentzian signature. We derive a minimal set of their properties solely from the Euclidean unitary CFT axioms, without using extra assumptions. We establish all Wightman axioms (temperedness, spectral property, local commutativity, clustering), Lorentzian conformal invariance, and distributional convergence of the s-channel Lorentzian OPE. This is done constructively, by analytically continuing the 4-point functions using the s-channel OPE expansion in the radial cross-ratios $ρ, \barρ$. We prove a key fact that $|ρ|, |\barρ| < 1$ inside the forward tube, and set bounds on how fast $|ρ|, |\barρ|$ may tend to 1 when approaching the Minkowski space. We also provide a guide to the axiomatic QFT literature for the modern CFT audience. We review the Wightman and Osterwalder-Schrader (OS) axioms for Lorentzian and Euclidean QFTs, and the celebrated OS theorem connecting them. We also review a classic result of Mack about the distributional OPE convergence. Some of the classic arguments turn out useful in our setup. Others fall short of our needs due to Lorentzian assumptions (Mack) or unverifiable Euclidean assumptions (OS theorem).

hep-th↗

arXiv2021

Gentle introduction to rigorous Renormalization Group: a worked fermionic example

Much of our understanding of critical phenomena is based on the notion of Renormalization Group (RG), but the actual determination of its fixed points is usually based on approximations and truncations, and predictions of physical quantities are often of limited accuracy. The RG fixed points can be however given a fully rigorous and non-perturbative characterization, and this is what is presented here in a model of symplectic fermions with a nonlocal ("long-range") kinetic term depending on a parameter $\varepsilon$ and a quartic interaction. We identify the Banach space of interactions, which the fixed point belongs to, and we determine it via a convergent approximation scheme. The Banach space is not limited to relevant interactions, but it contains all possible irrelevant terms with short-ranged kernels, decaying like a stretched exponential at large distances. As the model shares a number of features in common with $ϕ^4$ or Ising models, the result can be used as a benchmark to test the validity of truncations and approximations in RG studies. The analysis is based on results coming from Constructive RG to which we provide a tutorial and self-contained introduction. In addition, we prove that the fixed point is analytic in $\varepsilon$, a somewhat surprising fact relying on the fermionic nature of the problem.

hep-th↗

arXiv2021

A structural test for the conformal invariance of the critical 3d Ising model

How can a renormalization group fixed point be scale invariant without being conformal? Polchinski (1988) showed that this may happen if the theory contains a virial current -- a non-conserved vector operator of dimension exactly $(d-1)$, whose divergence expresses the trace of the stress tensor. We point out that this scenario can be probed via lattice Monte Carlo simulations, using the critical 3d Ising model as an example. Our results put a lower bound $Δ_V>5.0$ on the scaling dimension of the lowest virial current candidate $V$, well above 2 expected for the true virial current. This implies that the critical 3d Ising model has no virial current, providing a structural explanation for the conformal invariance of the model.

hep-th↗

arXiv2020

3D Ising Model: a view from the Conformal Bootstrap Island

We explain how the axioms of Conformal Field Theory are used to make predictions about critical exponents of continuous phase transitions in three dimensions, via a procedure called the conformal bootstrap. The method assumes conformal invariance of correlation functions, and imposes some relations between correlation functions of different orders. Numerical analysis shows that these conditions are incompatible unless the critical exponents take particular values, or more precisely that they must belong to a small island in the parameter space.

math-ph↗

arXiv2020

Random Field Ising Model and Parisi-Sourlas Supersymmetry I. Supersymmetric CFT

Quenched disorder is very important but notoriously hard. In 1979, Parisi and Sourlas proposed an interesting and powerful conjecture about the infrared fixed points with random field type of disorder: such fixed points should possess an unusual supersymmetry, by which they reduce in two less spatial dimensions to usual non-supersymmetric non-disordered fixed points. This conjecture however is known to fail in some simple cases, but there is no consensus on why this happens. In this paper we give new non-perturbative arguments for dimensional reduction. We recast the problem in the language of Conformal Field Theory (CFT). We then exhibit a map of operators and correlation functions from Parisi-Sourlas supersymmetric CFT in $d$ dimensions to a $(d-2)$-dimensional ordinary CFT. The reduced theory is local, i.e. it has a local conserved stress tensor operator. As required by reduction, we show a perfect match between superconformal blocks and the usual conformal blocks in two dimensions lower. This also leads to a new relation between conformal blocks across dimensions. This paper concerns the second half of the Parisi-Sourlas conjecture, while the first half (existence of a supersymmetric fixed point) will be examined in a companion work.

hep-th↗

arXiv2020

Distributions in CFT I. Cross-Ratio Space

We show that the four-point functions in conformal field theory are defined as distributions on the boundary of the region of convergence of the conformal block expansion. The conformal block expansion converges in the sense of distributions on this boundary, i.e. it can be integrated term by term against appropriate test functions. This can be interpreted as a giving a new class of functionals that satisfy the swapping property when applied to the crossing equation, and we comment on the relation of our construction to other types of functionals. Our language is useful in all considerations involving the boundary of the region of convergence, e.g. for deriving the dispersion relations. We establish our results by elementary methods, relying only on crossing symmetry and the standard convergence properties of the conformal block expansion. This is the first in a series of papers on distributional properties of correlation functions in conformal field theory.

hep-th↗

arXiv2019

The Conformal Bootstrap: Theory, Numerical Techniques, and Applications

Conformal field theories have been long known to describe the fascinating universal physics of scale invariant critical points. They describe continuous phase transitions in fluids, magnets, and numerous other materials, while at the same time sit at the heart of our modern understanding of quantum field theory. For decades it has been a dream to study these intricate strongly coupled theories nonperturbatively using symmetries and other consistency conditions. This idea, called the conformal bootstrap, saw some successes in two dimensions but it is only in the last ten years that it has been fully realized in three, four, and other dimensions of interest. This renaissance has been possible both due to significant analytical progress in understanding how to set up the bootstrap equations and the development of numerical techniques for finding or constraining their solutions. These developments have led to a number of groundbreaking results, including world record determinations of critical exponents and correlation function coefficients in the Ising and $O(N)$ models in three dimensions. This article will review these exciting developments for newcomers to the bootstrap, giving an introduction to conformal field theories and the theory of conformal blocks, describing numerical techniques for the bootstrap based on convex optimization, and summarizing in detail their applications to fixed points in three and four dimensions with no or minimal supersymmetry.

hep-th↗

arXiv2019

Hamiltonian Truncation Study of the Phi^4 Theory in Two Dimensions II. The Z_2-Broken Phase and the Chang Duality

The Fock-space Hamiltonian truncation method is developed further, paying particular attention to the treatment of the scalar field zero mode. This is applied to the two-dimensional Phi^4 theory in the phase where the Z_2-symmetry is spontaneously broken, complementing our earlier study of the Z_2-invariant phase and of the critical point. We also check numerically the weak/strong duality of this theory discussed long ago by Chang.

hep-th↗

arXiv2019

General Properties of Multiscalar RG Flows in $d=4-\varepsilon$

Fixed points of scalar field theories with quartic interactions in $d=4-\varepsilon$ dimensions are considered in full generality. For such theories it is known that there exists a scalar function $A$ of the couplings through which the leading-order beta-function can be expressed as a gradient. It is here proved that the fixed-point value of $A$ is bounded from below by a simple expression linear in the dimension of the vector order parameter, $N$. Saturation of the bound requires a marginal deformation, and is shown to arise when fixed points with the same global symmetry coincide in coupling space. Several general results about scalar CFTs are discussed, and a review of known fixed points is given.

hep-th↗

arXiv2018

Walking, Weak first-order transitions, and Complex CFTs II. Two-dimensional Potts model at $Q>4$

We study complex CFTs describing fixed points of the two-dimensional $Q$-state Potts model with $Q>4$. Their existence is closely related to the weak first-order phase transition and walking RG behavior present in the real Potts model at $Q>4$. The Potts model, apart from its own significance, serves as an ideal playground for testing this very general relation. Cluster formulation provides nonperturbative definition for a continuous range of parameter $Q$, while Coulomb gas description and connection to minimal models provide some conformal data of the complex CFTs. We use one and two-loop conformal perturbation theory around complex CFTs to compute various properties of the real walking RG flow. These properties, such as drifting scaling dimensions, appear to be common features of the QFTs with walking RG flows, and can serve as a smoking gun for detecting walking in Monte Carlo simulations. The complex CFTs discussed in this work are perfectly well defined, and can in principle be seen in Monte Carlo simulations with complexified coupling constants. In particular, we predict a pair of $S_5$-symmetric complex CFTs with central charges $c\approx 1.138 \pm 0.021 i$ describing the fixed points of a 5-state dilute Potts model with complexified temperature and vacancy fugacity.

hep-th↗

arXiv2018

Hamiltonian Truncation Study of the Phi^4 Theory in Two Dimensions

We defend the Fock-space Hamiltonian truncation method, which allows to calculate numerically the spectrum of strongly coupled quantum field theories, by putting them in a finite volume and imposing a UV cutoff. The accuracy of the method is improved via an analytic renormalization procedure inspired by the usual effective field theory. As an application, we study the two-dimensional Phi^4 theory for a wide range of couplings. The theory exhibits a quantum phase transition between the symmetry-preserving and symmetry-breaking phases. We extract quantitative predictions for the spectrum and the critical coupling and make contact with previous results from the literature. Future directions to further improve the accuracy of the method and enlarge its scope of applications are outlined.

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