Publications related to Bootstrapping smooth conformal defects in Chern-Simons-matter theories

Flux correlators and semiclassics

Riccardo Rattazzi, Alexander Monin, Eren Clément Firat, Matthew Thomas Walters

We consider correlators for the flux of energy and charge in the background of operators with large global U(1) charge in conformal field theory (CFT). It has recently been shown that the corresponding Euclidean correlators generically admit a semiclassica ...

Springer Nature2024

Null energy constraints on two-dimensional RG flows

Grégoire Olivier Mathys

We study applications of spectral positivity and the averaged null energy condition (ANEC) to renormalization group (RG) flows in two-dimensional quantum field theory. We find a succinct new proof of the Zamolodchikov c-theorem, and derive further independ ...

Springer Nature2024

Bootstrapping amplitudes of scalar particles

Jan Krzysztof Marucha

Quantum Field Theories are a central object of interest of modern physics, describing fundamental interactions of matter. However, current methods give limited insight into strongly coupling theories. S-matrix bootstrap program, described in this thesis, a ...

EPFL2024

Holography and localization of information in quantum gravity

Kyriakos Papadodimas, Alexandre Mathieu Frédéric Belin

Within the AdS/CFT correspondence, we identify a class of CFT operators which represent diff-invariant and approximately local observables in the gravitational dual. Provided that the bulk state breaks all asymptotic symmetries, we show that these operator ...

Springer Nature2024

Exact quantum conformal symmetry, its spontaneous breakdown, and gravitational Weyl anomaly

Mikhail Chapochnikov, Anna Tokareva

The classical Lagrangian of the Standard Model enjoys the symmetry of the full conformal group if the mass of the Higgs boson is put to zero. This is a hint that conformal symmetry may play a fundamental role in the ultimate theory describing nature. The o ...

American Physical Society2023

Anomaly-free scale symmetry and gravity

Mikhail Chapochnikov, Anna Tokareva

In this Letter, we address the question of whether the conformal invariance can be considered as a global symmetry of a theory of fundamental interactions. To describe Nature, this theory must contain a mechanism of spontaneous breaking of the scale symmet ...

ELSEVIER2023

Identifying Large Charge operators

Riccardo Rattazzi, Alexander Monin, Gil Badel

The Large Charge sector of Conformal Field Theory (CFT) can generically be described through a semiclassical expansion around a superfluid background. In this work, focussing on U(1) invariant Wilson-Fisher fixed points, we study the spectrum of spinning l ...

Springer Nature2023

Twist Accumulation in Conformal Field Theory: A Rigorous Approach to the Lightcone Bootstrap

Jiaxin Qiao

We prove that in any unitary CFT, a twist gap in the spectrum of operator product expansion (OPE) of identical scalar quasiprimary operators (i.e. phi x phi) implies the existence of a family of quasiprimary operators O t,l with spins l ->.infinity and twi ...

SPRINGER2023

Nonperturbative aspects of scattering amplitudes

Miguel Alexandre Ribeiro Correia

In this thesis we study how physical principles imposed on the S-matrix, such as Lorentz invariance, unitarity, crossing symmetry and analyticity constrain quantum field theories at the nonperturbative level. We start with a pedagogical introduction to the ...

EPFL2023

The Källén-Lehmann representation in de Sitter spacetime

João Miguel Augusto Penedones Fernandes, Kamran Salehi Vaziri, Manuel Loparco

We study two-point functions of symmetric traceless local operators in the bulk of de Sitter spacetime. We derive the Kallen-Lehmann spectral decomposition for any spin and show that unitarity implies its spectral densities are nonnegative. In addition, we ...

Springer Nature2023

Primal-Dual Contextual Bayesian Optimization for Control System Online Optimization with Time-Average Constraints

Colin Neil Jones, Yuning Jiang, Wenjie Xu, Bratislav Svetozarevic

This paper studies the problem of online performance optimization of constrained closed-loop control systems, where both the objective and the constraints are unknown black-box functions affected by exogenous time-varying contextual disturbances. A primal- ...

IEEE2023

Semiclassical methods in conformal field theories scrutinized by the epsilon-expansion

Gil Badel

Conformal Field Theories (CFTs) are crucial for our understanding of Quantum Field Theory (QFT). Because of their powerful symmetry properties, they play the role of signposts in the space of QFTs. Any method that gives us information about their structure ...

EPFL2022

Conformal Field Theory at the Lattice Level: Discrete Complex Analysis and Virasoro Structure

Clément Hongler

Critical statistical mechanics and Conformal Field Theory (CFT) are conjecturally connected since the seminal work of Beliavin et al. (Nucl Phys B 241(2):333-380, 1984). Both exhibit exactly solvable structures in two dimensions. A long-standing question ( ...

SPRINGER2022

Nonperturbative Quantum Field Theory in Curved Spacetime

Kamran Salehi Vaziri

Quantum Field Theory(QFT) as one of the most promising frameworks to study high energy and condensed matter physics, has been mostly developed by perturbative methods. However, perturbative methods can only capture a small island of the space of QFTs. QFT ...

EPFL2022

Thermalization and hydrodynamics of two-dimensional quantum field theories

Matthew Thomas Walters

We consider 2d QFTs as relevant deformations of CFTs in the thermodynamic limit. Using causality and KPZ universality, we place a lower bound on the timescale characterizing the onset of hydrodynamics. The bound is determined parametrically in terms of the ...

2022

From kirigami to hydrogels: a tutorial on designing conformally transformable surfaces

Yue Wang, Yingying Ren, Tian Chen

Elastic surfaces that morph between multiple geometrical configurations are of significant engineering value, with applications ranging from the deployment of space-based PV arrays, the erection of temporary shelters, and the realization of flexible displa ...

2023

Nonperturbative Mellin Amplitudes

João Pedro Alves Da Silva

Conformal field theory lies at the heart of two central topics in theoretical high energy physics: the study of quantum gravity and the mapping of quantum field theories through the renormalization group. In this thesis we explore a technique to study conf ...

EPFL2021

Applications of dispersive sum rules: epsilon-expansion and holography

João Miguel Augusto Penedones Fernandes, João Pedro Alves Da Silva, Din Carmi, Alexander Zhiboedov

We use Mellin space dispersion relations together with Polyakov conditions to derive a family of sum rules for Conformal Field Theories (CFTs). The defining property of these sum rules is suppression of the contribution of the double twist operators. First ...

SCIPOST FOUNDATION2021

A note on the large charge expansion in 4d CFT

Gabriel Francisco Cuomo

In this letter, we discuss certain universal predictions of the large charge expansion in conformal field theories with U (1) symmetry, mainly focusing on four-dimensional theories. We show that, while in three dimensions quantum fluctuations are responsib ...

2021

Hamiltonian truncation in Anti-de Sitter spacetime

João Miguel Augusto Penedones Fernandes, Marco Meineri, Kamran Salehi Vaziri, Matthijs Jan Hogervorst

Quantum Field Theories (QFTs) in Anti-de Sitter (AdS) spacetime are often strongly coupled when the radius of AdS is large, and few methods are available to study them. In this work, we develop a Hamiltonian truncation method to compute the energy spectrum ...

Springer Nature2021