Surface defect, anomalies and b-extremization

Quantum field theories (QFT) in the presence of defects exhibit new types of anomalies which play an important role in constraining the defect dynamics and defect renormalization group (RG) flows. Here we study surface defects and their anomalies in conformal field theories (CFT) of general spacetime dimensions. When the defect is conformal, it is characterized by a conformal b-anomaly analogous to the c-anomaly of 2d CFTs. The b-theorem states that b must monotonically decrease under defect RG flows and was proven by coupling to a spurious defect dilaton. We revisit the proof by deriving explicitly the dilaton effective action for defect RG flow in the free scalar theory. For conformal surface defects preserving $$ \mathcal{N} $$ N = (0, 2) supersymmetry, we prove a universal relation between the b-anomaly and the ’t Hooft anomaly for the U(1)r symmetry. We also establish the b-extremization principle that identifies the superconformal U(1)r symmetry from $$ \mathcal{N} $$ N = (0, 2) preserving RG flows. Together they provide a powerful tool to extract the b-anomaly of strongly coupled surface defects. To illustrate our method, we determine the b-anomalies for a number of surface defects in 3d, 4d and 6d SCFTs. We also comment on manifestations of these defect conformal and ’t Hooft anomalies in defect correlation functions.

A note on commutation relation in conformal field theory

In this note, we explicitly compute the vacuum expectation value of the commutator of scalar fields in a d-dimensional conformal field theory on the cylinder. We find from explicit calculations that we need smearing not only in space but also in time to have finite commutators except for those of free scalar operators. Thus the equal time commutators of the scalar fields are not well-defined for a non-free conformal field theory, even if which is defined from the Lagrangian. We also have the commutator for a conformal field theory on Minkowski space, instead of the cylinder, by taking the small distance limit. For the conformal field theory on Minkowski space, the above statements are also applied.

An Introduction to κ-Deformed Symmetries, Phase Spaces and Field Theory

In this review, we give a basic introduction to the κ-deformed relativistic phase space and free quantum fields. After a review of the κ-Poincaré algebra, we illustrate the construction of the κ-deformed phase space of a classical relativistic particle using the tools of Lie bi-algebras and Poisson–Lie groups. We then discuss how to construct a free scalar field theory on the non-commutative κ-Minkowski space associated to the κ-Poincaré and illustrate how the group valued nature of momenta affects the field propagation.

Free energy and defect C-theorem in free scalar theory

We describe conformal defects of p dimensions in a free scalar theory on a d-dimensional flat space as boundary conditions on the conformally flat space ℍp+1× 𝕊d−p−1. We classify two types of boundary conditions, Dirichlet type and Neumann type, on the boundary of the subspace ℍp+1 which correspond to the types of conformal defects in the free scalar theory. We find Dirichlet boundary conditions always exist while Neumann boundary conditions are allowed only for defects of lower codimensions. Our results match with a recent classification of the non-monodromy defects, showing Neumann boundary conditions are associated with non-trivial defects. We check this observation by calculating the difference of the free energies on ℍp+1× 𝕊d−p−1 between Dirichlet and Neumann boundary conditions. We also examine the defect RG flows from Neumann to Dirichlet boundary conditions and provide more support for a conjectured C-theorem in defect CFTs.

Diagrammatic expansion of non-perturbative little string free energies

In [1] we have studied the single-particle free energy of a class of Little String Theories of A-type, which are engineered by N parallel M5-branes on a circle. To leading instanton order (from the perspective of the low energy U(N) gauge theory) and partially also to higher order, a decomposition was observed, which resembles a Feynman diagrammatic expansion: external states are given by expansion coefficients of the N = 1 BPS free energy and a quasi-Jacobi form that governs the BPS-counting of an M5-brane coupling to two M2-branes. The effective coupling functions were written as infinite series and similarities to modular graph functions were remarked. In the current work we continue and extend this study: working with the full non-perturbative BPS free energy, we analyse in detail the cases N = 2, 3 and 4. We argue that in these cases to leading instanton order all coupling functions can be written as a simple combination of two-point functions of a single free scalar field on the torus. We provide closed form expressions, which we conjecture to hold for generic N. To higher instanton order, we observe that a decomposition of the free energy in terms of higher point functions with the same external states is still possible but a priori not unique. We nevertheless provide evidence that tentative coupling functions are still combinations of scalar Greens functions, which are decorated with derivatives or multiplied with holomorphic Eisenstein series. We interpret these decorations as corrections of the leading order effective couplings and in particular link the latter to dihedral graph functions with bivalent vertices, which suggests an interpretation in terms of disconnected graphs.

Weak cosmic censorship with self-interacting scalar and bound on charge to mass ratio

We study the model of four-dimensional Einstein-Maxwell-Λ theory minimally coupled to a massive charged self-interacting scalar field, parameterized by the quartic and hexic couplings, labelled by λ and β, respectively. In the absence of scalar field, there is a class of counterexamples to cosmic censorship. Moreover, we investigate the full nonlinear solution with nonzero scalar field included, and argue that these counterexamples can be removed by assuming charged self-interacting scalar field with sufficiently large charge not lower than a certain bound. In particular, this bound on charge required to preserve cosmic censorship is no longer precisely the weak gravity bound for the free scalar theory. For the quartic coupling, for λ < 0 the bound is below the one for the free scalar fields, whereas for λ > 0 it is above. Meanwhile, for the hexic coupling the bound is always above the one for the free scalar fields, irrespective of the sign of β.

Hamiltonian Renormalization V: Free Vector Bosons

In a recent proposal we applied methods from constructive QFT to derive a Hamiltonian Renormalization Group in order to employ it ultimately for canonical quantum gravity. The proposal was successfully tested for free scalar fields and thus a natural next step is to test it for free gauge theories. This can be done in the framework of reduced phase space quantization which allows using techniques developed earlier for scalar field theories. In addition, in canonical quantum gravity one works in representations that support holonomy operators which are ill defined in the Fock representation of say Maxwell or Proca theory. Thus, we consider toy models that have both features, i.e. which employ Fock representations in which holonomy operators are well-defined. We adapt the coarse graining maps considered for scalar fields to those theories for free vector bosons. It turns out that the corresponding fixed pointed theories can be found analytically.

Line and surface defects for the free scalar field

For a single free scalar field in d ≥ 2 dimensions, almost all the unitary conformal defects must be ‘trivial’ in the sense that they cannot hold interesting dynamics. The only possible exceptions are monodromy defects in d ≥ 4 and co-dimension three defects in d ≥ 5. As an intermediate result we show that the n-point correlation functions of a conformal theory with a generalized free spectrum must be those of the generalized free theory.

Small free field inflation in higher curvature gravity

Within General Relativity, a minimally coupled scalar field governed by a quadratic potential is able to produce an accelerated expansion of the universe provided its value and excursion are larger than the Planck scale. This is an archetypical example of the so called large field inflation models. We show that by including higher curvature corrections to the gravitational action in the form of the Geometric Inflation models, it is possible to obtain accelerated expansion with a free scalar field whose values are well below the Planck scale, thereby turning a traditional large field model into a small field one. We provide the conditions the theory has to satisfy in order for this mechanism to operate, and we present two explicit models illustrating it. Finally, we present some open questions raised by this scenario in which inflation takes place completely in a higher curvature dominated regime, such as those concerning the study of perturbations.