Seminars

Title: Bootstrapping N = 4 super-Yang-Mills on the conformal manifold

Abstract: We study the N = 4 SYM stress tensor multiplet 4-point function for any value of the complexified coupling tau, and in principle any gauge group (we focus on SU(2) and SU(3) for simplicity). By combining non-perturbative constraints from the numerical bootstrap with two exact constraints from supersymmetric localization, we are able to compute upper bounds on low-lying CFT data (e.g. the Konishi) for any value of tau. These upper bounds are very close to the 4-loop weak coupling predictions in the appropriate regime. We also give preliminary evidence that these upper bounds become small islands under reasonable assumptions, in which case our method would provide a numerical solution to N = 4 SYM for any gauge group and tau.

Title: Thermal Order in 3d

Abstract:  Our intuitive understanding of thermodynamics suggests that broken global symmetries in the stable vacuum of a physical system, get restored at high temperatures. We construct a unitary, UV-complete 3d QFT that instead exhibits a spontaneous breaking of continuous symmetries at all temperatures. Our model consists of two copies of the long-range vector model, with O(m) and O(N−m) global symmetry groups, perturbed by double-trace deformations. The model exhibits a conformal manifold in the large rank limit, that is lifted by 1/N corrections. A certain class of IR fixed points are shown to undergo SSB at finite temperature, with the pattern persisting to all temperatures due to scale-invariance. We provide evidence that the models in question are unitary, UV-complete, as well as invariant under conformal symmetry. Our work adds to the growing list of models that display persistent symmetry breaking (PSB), and discusses the necessary conditions for the models to display such a behaviour.

Title: Conformal operators in SYK-like models and their numerical effects

Abstract: Quantum mechanical models with random interactions have an infinite number of bilinear operators, the scaling dimensions of which can be computed explicitly in the large N limit. The lowest dimension operators play an important role in thermodynamical properties of these models and define the behavior of various correlation functions in the infrared limit. In this talk I’ll show that some SYK-like models have operators with unusual anomalous dimensions. I also demonstrate how they can be observed in numerical computations.

Based on works with Maria Tikhanovskaya, Haoyu Guo and Subir Sachdev

https://arxiv.org/abs/2010.09742
https://arxiv.org/abs/2012.14449

Title: Magnetic Quivers, Phase Diagrams, and Physics at Strongly Coupled Quantum Field Theories

Abstract: Quiver gauge theories experienced a breakthrough in activity through two important concepts, called “magnetic quivers” and “Hasse (phase) diagrams”. The first helps understanding the physics of strongly coupled gauge theories and exotic theories with tensionless strings in 6d or with massless gauge instants in 5d. The second gives an invaluable information about the phase structure of gauge theories, in analogy with phases of water. The talk will review these developments and explain their significance.

Title: Some aspects of line defects in d dimensions

Abstract: We consider renormalization group flows on line defects in d dimensions. We define a “defect entropy” and argue that it decreases monotonically during RG flows. We apply this result to line defects which appear in condensed matter and high energy physics, including magnetic (SPT) defects, localized field defects, and Wilson loops. In some of these cases we make some new experimental predictions and in the case of Wilson lines we make some comparisons with localization and holography. 

Title: Automorphic Spectra and the Conformal Bootstrap

Abstract: I will explain that the spectral geometry of hyperbolic manifolds provides a remarkably faithful model of the modern conformal bootstrap. In particular, to each hyperbolic manifold, one can associate a Hilbert space of local operators, which is a unitary representation of a conformal group. The scaling dimensions of the operators are related to the eigenvalues of the Laplacian on the manifold. The operators satisfy an operator product expansion. Finally, one can define their correlation functions and derive bootstrap equations constraining the spectrum. As an application, I will use conformal bootstrap techniques to derive upper bounds on the lowest positive eigenvalue of the Laplacian on closed hyperbolic surfaces and 2-orbifolds. In a number of notable cases, the bounds are nearly saturated by known surfaces and orbifolds. For instance, the bound on all genus-2 surfaces is λ1≤3.8388976481, while the Bolza surface has λ1≈3.838887258. The talk will be based on https://arxiv.org/abs/2111.12716, which is joint work with P. Kravchuk and S. Pal.

Title: Kramers-Wannier-like duality defects in (3+1)d gauge theories

Abstract: I will introduce a class of non-invertible topological defects in (3+1)d gauge theories whose fusion rules are the higher-dimensional analogs of those of the Kramers-Wannier defect in the (1+1)d critical Ising model. As in the lower-dimensional case, the presence of such non-invertible defects implies self-duality under a particular gauging of the discrete (higher-form) symmetries. I will illustrate this by means of the example of SO(3) Yang-Mills (YM) at θ=π,  as well as SU(2)N=4 SYM at τ=i.

Title: O(N), Sp(2M), and OSp(1|2M) Models

Abstract: The upper critical dimension of the O(N) vector model is well-known to be 4. In dimension 4-epsilon it is described by the Wilson-Fisher IR fixed point of the O(N) invariant scalar field theory with a small positive quartic coupling. Above 4 dimensions, this theory is non-renormalizable, but in 4+epsilon dimensions it formally has a UV fixed point at small negative coupling. For sufficiently large N, its UV completion in 4<d<6 is the theory of N+1 scalar fields with O(N) invariant cubic interactions. It possesses a weakly coupled IR fixed point in dimension 6-epsilon where the scaling dimensions agree with the 1/N expansion. The scaling dimensions also have imaginary parts that are exponentially small in N; this suggests the existence of near-critical behavior in 5 dimensions. 

Replacing N of the scalar fields by 2M anticommuting scalars, we find Sp(2M) invariant fixed points with imaginary coupling constants in dimension 6-epsilon. In the special case M=1 the symmetry is enhanced to OSp(1|2), and we argue that this theory describes the critical behavior of the zero-state Potts model, or equivalently the random spanning forests. We end by discussing the OSp(1|4) invariant fixed point of the field theory with quintic interactions. Its upper critical dimension is 10/3, and the 10/3-epsilon expansion provides estimates of new critical exponents in d=3.    

Title: A new look at completeness and generalized symmetries

Abstract: We describe a proposal for completeness in QFT. It asserts that the physical observable algebras produced by local degrees of freedom are the maximal ones compatible with causality. We elaborate on equivalent statements to this idea such as the non-existence of generalized symmetries and the uniqueness of the net of algebras. For non-complete theories, we explain how the existence of generalized symmetries is unavoidable, and further, that they always come in dual pairs with precisely the same size”, measured by an algebraic index. Entropic order/disorder parameters can be defined that sense the dual pairs of generalized symmetries and satisfy a “certainty relation”. We briefly describe applications to understand the density of charged states and to holography.

Title: Exactly Marginal Deformations and their Supergravity Duals


Abstract: We study the space of supersymmetric AdS5 solutions of type IIB supergravity corresponding to the conformal manifold of the dual N = 1 conformal field theories. We show that the background geometry naturally encodes a generalised holomorphic structure, dual to the superpotential of the field theory, with the existence of the full solution following from a continuity argument. In particular, we address the long-standing problem of finding the gravity dual of the generic N = 1 deformations of N = 4 super Yang-Mills: though we are not able to give it in a fully explicit form, we provide a proof-of-existence of the supergravity solution. Using this formalism, we derive a new result for the Hilbert series of the deformed field theories.