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Vincent Vargas

Publications and source records attributed to Vincent Vargas.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Fourier dimension of imaginary Gaussian multiplicative chaos

We study the high-frequency Fourier asymptotics of imaginary Gaussian multiplicative chaos on the unit circle, a complex-valued random distribution formally given by $\mathrm M_{\mathrm i\beta}=\exp(\mathrm i\beta X)$, where $X$ is a log-correlated Gaussian field. In the subcritical phase $\beta\in(0,1)$, we prove that its Fourier dimension, defined by the optimal polynomial decay exponent of $|\widehat{\mathrm M_{\mathrm i\beta}}(n)|^2$, is almost surely equal to $1-\beta^2$. This result holds for a broad class of log-correlated fields whose covariance differs from the exact logarithmic kernel by a sufficiently regular function. For the exactly log-correlated field on the circle, we obtain the following results. We prove that the chaos almost surely fails to belong to $H^{-\beta^2/2}(\mathbb T)$, the critical Sobolev space left open by previous regularity results. We further establish a central limit theorem: the rescaled coefficients $n^{(1-\beta^2)/2}\widehat{\mathrm M_{\mathrm i\beta}}(n)$ converge in law to an isotropic complex Gaussian random variable, and finitely many consecutive coefficients converge jointly to independent copies. The high-frequency content of $\mathrm M_{\mathrm i\beta}$ behaves as a white noise: $n^{(1-\beta^2)/2}e^{\mathrm ii n\theta}\mathrm M_{\mathrm i\beta}$ converges in $H^s(\mathbb T)$, $s<-1/2$, to a complex white noise with explicit intensity $\kappa(\beta)=\frac{1}{\pi}\Gamma(1-\beta^2)\sin\big(\frac{\pi\beta^2}{2}\big)$. The proof relies on moment identities obtained from Coulomb-gas integrals and Jack-polynomial expansions. Their asymptotic analysis is governed by partitions with large gaps, where the Pieri coefficients appearing in these expansions simplify, and the leading contribution becomes explicit.

math.PR

Two Decades of Probabilistic Approach to Liouville Conformal Field Theory

Over the past twenty years, the probabilistic approach to Liouville Conformal Field Theory (LCFT) has undergone remarkable developments, transforming a collection of ideas at the interface of probability, geometry, complex analysis and physics into a coherent mathematical theory. Building on Gaussian Free Fields and Gaussian Multiplicative Chaos, rigorous definitions of correlation functions and partition functions have been established, culminating in the probabilistic derivation of the DOZZ formula and a mathematically complete formulation of the conformal bootstrap for LCFT on Riemann surfaces. This survey aims to provide a synthetic account of these advances, emphasizing both the main achievements and the open problems that continue to drive the field.

math-ph

2d Sinh-Gordon model on the infinite cylinder

For $R>0$, we give a rigorous probabilistic construction on the cylinder $\mathbb{R} \times (\mathbb{R}/(2\pi R\mathbb{Z}))$ of the (massless) Sinh-Gordon model. In particular we define the $n$-point correlation functions of the model and show that these exhibit a scaling relation with respect to $R$. The construction, which relies on the massless Gaussian Free Field, is based on the spectral analysis of a quantum operator associated to the model. Using the theory of Gaussian multiplicative chaos, we prove that this operator has discrete spectrum and a strictly positive ground state.

math.PR

Harmonic analysis of Gaussian multiplicative chaos on the circle

In this paper, we initiate the harmonic analysis of Gaussian multiplicative chaos (GMC) on the circle, i.e. the study of its Fourier coefficients. In particular, we show that almost surely GMC is a so-called Rajchman measure which means that its Fourier coefficients converge to $0$ when the frequency goes to infinity. We supplement this result with a convergence in law result for the rescaled Fourier coefficients.

math.PR

Probabilistic construction of Toda conformal field theories

Following the 1984 seminal work of Belavin, Polyakov and Zamolodchikov on two-dimensional conformal field theories, Toda conformal field theories were introduced in the physics literature as a family of two-dimensional conformal field theories that enjoy, in addition to conformal symmetry, an extended level of symmetry usually referred to as W-symmetry or higher-spin symmetry. More precisely Toda conformal field theories provide a natural way to associate to a finite-dimensional simple and complex Lie algebra a conformal field theory for which the algebra of symmetry contains the Virasoro algebra. In this document we use the path integral formulation of these models to provide a rigorous mathematical construction of Toda conformal field theories based on probability theory. By doing so we recover expected properties of the theory such as the Weyl anomaly formula with respect to the change of background metric by a conformal factor and the existence of Seiberg bounds for the correlation functions.

math-ph

The Virasoro structure and the scattering matrix for Liouville conformal field theory

In this work, we construct a representation of the Virasoro algebra in the canonical Hilbert space associated to Liouville conformal field theory. The study of the Virasoro operators is performed through the introduction of a new family of Markovian dynamics associated to holomorphic vector fields defined in the disk. As an output, we show that the Hamiltonian of Liouville conformal field theory can be diagonalized through the action of the Virasoro algebra. This enables to show that the scattering matrix of the theory is diagonal and that the family of the so-called primary fields (which are eigenvectors of the Hamiltonian) admits an analytic extension to the whole complex plane, as conjectured in the physics literature.

math.PR

Segal's axioms and bootstrap for Liouville Theory

In 1987 Graeme Segal gave a functorial definition of Conformal Field Theory (CFT) that was designed to capture the mathematical essence of the Conformal Bootstrap formalism pioneered in physics by Belavin-Polyakov-Zamolodchikov. In Segal's formulation the basic objects of CFT, the correlation functions of conformal primary fields, are viewed as functions on the moduli space of Riemann surfaces with marked points which behave naturally under gluing of surfaces. In this paper we give a probabilistic realization of Segal's axioms in Liouville Conformal Field Theory (LCFT) which is a CFT that plays a fundamental role in the theory of random surfaces and two dimensional quantum gravity. Then we use Segal's axioms to express the correlation functions of LCFT in terms of the basic objects of LCFT: its {\it spectrum} and its {\it structure constants}, determined in earlier works by the authors. As a consequence, we obtain a formula for the correlation functions as multiple integrals over the spectrum of LCFT, the structure of these integrals being associated to a pant decomposition of the surface. The integrand is the modulus squared of a function called conformal block: its structure is encoded by the commutation relations of an algebra of operators called the Virasoro algebra and it depends holomorphically on the moduli of the surface with marked points. The integration measure involves a product of structure constants, which have an explicit expression, the so called DOZZ formula.

math.PR

Conformal bootstrap in Liouville Theory

The conformal bootstrap hypothesis is a powerful idea in theoretical physics which has led to spectacular predictions in the context of critical phenomena. It postulates an explicit expression for the correlation functions of a conformal field theory in terms of its 3-point correlation functions. In this paper we give the first mathematical proof of the conformal bootstrap hypothesis in the context of Liouville theory, a 2-dimensional conformal field theory studied since the eighties in theoretical physics and constructed recently by F. David and the three last authors using probability theory. The proof is based on a probabilistic construction of the Virasoro algebra highest weight modules through spectral analysis of an associated self adjoint operator akin to harmonic analysis on non compact Lie groups but in an infinite dimensional setup.

math.PR

A probabilistic approach of ultraviolet renormalisation in the boundary Sine-Gordon model

The Sine-Gordon model is obtained by tilting the law of a log-correlated Gaussian field $X$ defined on a subset of $\mathbb{R}^d$ by the exponential of its cosine, namely $\exp(α\smallint \cos (βX))$. It is an important model in quantum field theory or in statistic physics like in the study of log-gases. In spite of its relatively simple definition, the model has a very rich phenomenology. While the integral $\smallint \cos (βX)$ can properly be defined when $β^2<d$ using the standard Wick normalisation of $\cos (βX)$, a more involved renormalization procedure is needed when $β^2\in [d,2d)$. In particular it exhibits a countable sequence of phase transition accumulating to the left of $β=\sqrt{2d}$, each transitions corresponding to the addition of an extra term in the renormalization scheme. The final threshold $β=\sqrt{2}$ corresponds to the Kosterlitz-Thouless (KT) phase transition of the $\log$-gas. In this paper, we present a novel probabilistic approach to renormalization of the two-dimensional boundary (or 1-dimensional) Sine-Gordon model up to the KT threshold $β=\sqrt{2}$. The purpose of this approach is to propose a simple and flexible method to treat this problem which, unlike the existing renormalization group techniques, does not rely on translation invariance for the covariance kernel of $X$ or the reference measure along which $\cos (βX)$ is integrated. To this purpose we establish by induction a general formula for the cumulants of a random variable. We apply this formula to study the cumulants of (approximations of) $\smallint \cos (βX)$. To control all terms produced by the induction proceedure, we prove a refinement of classical electrostatic inequalities, which allows to bound the energy of configurations in terms of the Wasserstein distance between $+$ and $-$ charges.

math.PR

Polyakov's formulation of $2d$ bosonic string theory

Using probabilistic methods, we first define Liouville quantum field theory on Riemann surfaces of genus $\mathbf{g}\geq 2$ and show that it is a conformal field theory. We use the partition function of Liouville quantum field theory to give a mathematical sense to Polyakov's partition function of noncritical bosonic string theory \cite{Pol} (also called $2d$ bosonic string theory) and to Liouville quantum gravity. Then we show the convergence of Polyakov's partition function over the moduli space of Riemann surfaces in genus $\mathbf{g}\geq 2$ in the case of $D\leq 1$ boson. This is done by performing a careful analysis of the behaviour of the partition function at the boundary of moduli space. An essential feature of our approach is that it is probabilistic and non perturbative. The interest of our result is twofold. First, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first mathematical result about convergence of string theories. Second, our construction describes conjecturally the scaling limit of higher genus random planar maps weighted by Conformal Field Theories: we make precise conjectures about this statement at the end of the paper.

math-ph

Integrability of Liouville theory: proof of the DOZZ Formula

Dorn and Otto (1994) and independently Zamolodchikov and Zamolodchikov (1996) proposed a remarkable explicit expression, the so-called DOZZ formula, for the 3 point structure constants of Liouville Conformal Field Theory (LCFT), which is expected to describe the scaling limit of large planar maps properly embedded into the Riemann sphere. In this paper we give a proof of the DOZZ formula based on a rigorous probabilistic construction of LCFT in terms of Gaussian Multiplicative Chaos given earlier by F. David and the authors. This result is a fundamental step in the path to prove integrability of LCFT, i.e. to mathematically justify the methods of Conformal Bootstrap used by physicists. From the purely probabilistic point of view, our proof constitutes the first rigorous integrability result on Gaussian Multiplicative Chaos measures.

math.PR

The semiclassical limit of Liouville conformal field theory

A rigorous probabilistic construction of Liouville conformal field theory (LCFT) on the Riemann sphere was recently given by David-Kupiainen and the last two authors. In this paper, we focus on the connection between LCFT and the classical Liouville field theory via the semiclassical approach. LCFT depends on a parameter $γ\in (0,2)$ and the limit $γ\to 0$ corresponds to the semiclassical limit of the theory. Within this asymptotic and under a negative curvature condition (on the limiting metric of the theory), we determine the limit of the correlation functions and of the associated Liouville field. We also establish a large deviation result for the Liouville field: as expected, the large deviation functional is the classical Liouville action. As a corollary, we give a new (probabilistic) proof of the Takhtajan-Zograf theorem which relates the classical Liouville action (taken at its minimum) to Poincaré's accessory parameters. Finally, we gather conjectures in the positive curvature case (including the study of the so-called quantum spheres introduced by Duplantier-Miller-Sheffield).

math.PR

The Tail expansion of Gaussian multiplicative chaos and the Liouville reflection coefficient

In this short note, we derive a precise tail expansion for Gaussian multiplicative chaos (GMC) associated to the 2d GFF on the unit disk with zero average on the unit circle (and variants). More specifically, we show that to first order the tail is a constant times an inverse power with an explicit value for the tail exponent as well as an explicit value for the constant in front of the inverse power; we also provide a second order bound for the tail expansion. The main interest of our work consists of two points. First, our derivation is based on a simple method which we believe is universal in the sense that it can be generalized to all dimensions and to all log-correlated fields. Second, in the 2d case we consider, the value of the constant in front of the inverse power is (up to explicit terms) nothing but the Liouville reflection coefficient taken at a special value. The explicit computation of the constant was performed in the recent rigorous derivation with A. Kupiainen of the DOZZ formula \cite{KRV1,KRV}; to our knowledge, it is the first time one derives rigorously an explicit value for such a constant in the tail expansion of a GMC measure. We have deliberately kept this paper short to emphasize the method so that it becomes an easily accessible toolbox for computing tails in GMC theory.

math.PR

Liouville heat kernel: regularity and bounds

We initiate in this paper the study of analytic properties of the Liouville heat kernel. In particular, we establish regularity estimates on the heat kernel and derive non trivial lower and upper bounds.

math.PR

The DOZZ Formula from the Path Integral

We present a rigorous proof of the Dorn, Otto, Zamolodchikov, Zamolodchikov formula (the DOZZ formula) for the 3 point structure constants of Liouville Conformal Field Theory (LCFT) starting from a rigorous probabilistic construction of the functional integral defining LCFT given earlier by the authors and David. A crucial ingredient in our argument is a probabilistic derivation of the reflection relation in LCFT based on a refined tail analysis of Gaussian multiplicative chaos measures.

hep-th

Lecture notes on Liouville theory and the DOZZ formula

The purpose of these notes, based on a series of 4 lectures given by the author at IHES, is to explain the recent proof of the DOZZ formula for the three point correlation functions of Liouville conformal field theory (LCFT). We first review the probabilistic construction of the $N$ point correlation functions of LCFT on the Riemann sphere for $N \geq 3$ (based on a series of works of the author with David, Kupiainen and Rhodes). We then explain the construction of the two point correlation functions of LCFT, also called reflection coefficient. These probabilistic constructions will be justified from the point of view of Polyakov's path integral formulation of LCFT. Finally, we explain the proof of the DOZZ formula for the three point correlation functions of LCFT (based on 2 papers by the author with Kupiainen and Rhodes).

math.PR

On a skewed and multifractal uni-dimensional random field, as a probabilistic representation of Kolmogorov's views on turbulence

We construct, for the first time to our knowledge, a one-dimensional stochastic field $\{u(x)\}_{x\in \mathbb{R}}$ which satisfies the following axioms which are at the core of the phenomenology of turbulence mainly due to Kolmogorov: (i) Homogeneity and isotropy: $u(x) \overset{\mathrm{law}}= -u(x) \overset{\mathrm{law}}=u(0)$ (ii) Negative skewness (i.e. the $4/5^{\mbox{\tiny th}}$-law): \\ $\mathbb{E}{(u(x+\ell)-u(x))^3} \sim_{\ell \to 0+} - C \, \ell\,,$ \, for some constant $C>0$ (iii) Intermittency: $\mathbb{E}{|u(x+\ell)-u(x) |^q} \asymp_{\ell \to 0} |\ell|^{ξ_q}\,,$ for some non-linear spectrum $q\mapsto ξ_q$ Since then, it has been a challenging problem to combine axiom (ii) with axiom (iii) (especially for Hurst indexes of interest in turbulence, namely $H<1/2$). In order to achieve simultaneously both axioms, we disturb with two ingredients a underlying fractional Gaussian field of parameter $H\approx \frac 1 3 $. The first ingredient is an independent Gaussian multiplicative chaos (GMC) of parameter $γ$ that mimics the intermittent, i.e. multifractal, nature of the fluctuations. The second one is a field that correlates in an intricate way the fractional component and the GMC without additional parameters, a necessary inter-dependence in order to reproduce the asymmetrical, i.e. skewed, nature of the probability laws at small scales.

math.PR