We present a comprehensive analysis of the prescription we recently put forward for the computation of real-time correlation functions using gauge/gravity duality. The prescription is valid for any holographic supergravity background and it naturally maps initial and final data in the bulk to initial and final states or density matrices in the field theory. We show in detail how the technique of holographic renormalization can be applied in this setting and we provide numerous illustrative examples, including the computation of time-ordered, Wightman and retarded 2-point functions in Poincare and global coordinates, thermal correlators and higher-point functions.
Using the shadow dependent decoupled Slavnov-Taylor identities associated to gauge invariance and supersymmetry, we discuss the renormalization of the N=4 super-Yang-Mills theory and of its coupling to gauge-invariant operators. We specify the method for the determination of non-supersymmetric counterterms that are needed to maintain supersymmetry.
We introduce a new prescription for renormalizing Feynman diagrams. The prescription is similar to BPHZ, but it is mass independent, and works in the massless limit as the MS scheme with dimensional regularization. The prescription gives a diagrammatic solution to Wilson's exact renormalization group differential equation.
We consider target space duality transformations for heterotic sigma models and strings away from renormalization group fixed points. By imposing certain consistency requirements between the T-duality symmetry and renormalization group flows, the one loop gauge beta function is uniquely determined, without any diagram calculations. Classical T-duality symmetry is a valid quantum symmetry of the heterotic sigma model, severely constraining its renormalization flows at this one loop order. The issue of heterotic anomalies and their cancelation is addressed from this duality constraining viewpoin…
We suggest an alternative approach to deconfine N =1 SU(N) supersymmetric gauge theory with a symmetric tensor, fundamentals, anti-fundamentals, and no superpotential. It is found that although the dual prescription derived by this new method of deconfinement is different from that by the original method, both dual prescriptions are connected by duality transformations. By deforming the theory, it is shown that both dual theories flow properly so that the Seiberg's duality is preserved.
This is a copy of the 2009 Princeton University thesis which examined various aspects of gauge/gravity duality, including renormalization group flows, phase transitions of the holographic entanglement entropy, and instabilities associated with the breaking of supersymmetry. Chapter 5 contains new unpublished material on various instabilities of the weakly curved non-supersymmetric $AdS_4$ backgrounds of M-theory.
We present a general prescription for the holographic computation of real-time n-point functions in non-trivial states. In QFT such real-time computations involve a choice of a time contour in the complex time plane. The holographic prescription amounts to ``filling in'' this contour with bulk solutions: real segments of the contour are filled in with Lorentzian solutions while imaginary segments are filled in with Riemannian solutions and appropriate matching conditions are imposed at the corners of the contour. We illustrate the general discussion by computing the 2-point function of a scala…
Manifest T-duality covariance of the one-loop renormalization group flows is shown for a generic bosonic sigma model with an abelian isometry, by referring a set of previously derived consistency conditions to the tangent space of the target. For a restricted background, T-duality transformations are then studied at the next order, and the ensuing consistency conditions are found to be satisfied by the two-loop Weyl anomaly coefficients of the model. This represents an extremely non-trivial test of the covariance of renormalization group flows under T-duality, and a stronger condition than T-d…
In the warped compactification with a single Randall-Sundrum brane, a puzzling claim has been made that scalar fields can be bound to the brane but their Hodge dual higher-rank anti-symmetric tensors cannot. By explicitly requiring the Hodge duality, a prescription to resolve this puzzle was recently proposed by Duff and Liu. In this note, we implement the Hodge duality via path integral formulation in the presence of the background gravity fields of warped compactifications. It is shown that the prescription of Duff and Liu can be naturally understood within this framework.
We review some recent results concerning gauge theories in various dimensions. In particular, we discuss RG fixed points and ``mirror'' symmetry duality in 3d N=4 supersymmetric gauge theories and a classification of non-trivial RG fixed points in 5d N=1 supersymmetric theories.
We briefly review the calculations of quantum corrections related with the exact NSVZ $β$-function in ${\cal N}=1$ supersymmetric theories, paying especial attention to the scheme dependence of the results. It is explained, how the NSVZ relation is obtained for the renormalization group functions defined in terms of the bare coupling constant if a theory is regularized by higher derivatives. Also we describe, how to construct a special renormalization prescription which gives the NSVZ relation for the renormalization group functions defined in terms of the renormalized coupling constant exactl…
The requirement that duality and renormalization group transformations commute as motions in the space of a theory has recently been explored to extract information about the renormalization flows in different statistical and field theoretical systems. After a review of what has been accomplished in the context of 2d sigma models, new results are presented which set up the stage for a fully generic calculation at two-loop order, with particular emphasis on the question of scheme dependence.
In arXiv:0805.0150 [hep-th] and arXiv:0812.2909 [hep-th] a general prescription was presented for the computation of real-time correlation functions using the gauge/gravity duality. I apply this prescription to the specific case of retarded thermal correlation functions and derive the usual ingoing boundary conditions at the horizon for bulk fields. The derivation allows me to clarify various issues, in particular the generalization to higher-point functions and the relevance of including the regions beyond the horizon.
Leading Yukawa terms in the three-loop anomalous dimension and four-loop $β$-function of ${\cal N}=1$ supersymmetric theories for various renormalization prescriptions
General prescriptions of differential renormalization are presented. It is shown that renormalization group functions are straightforwardly expressed through some constants that naturally arise within this approach. The status of the action principle in the framework of differential renormalization is discussed.
S-duality domain walls are extended objects in supersymmetric gauge theories with several rich physical properties. This paper focuses on 3d N=2 gauge theories associated with S-duality walls in the 4d N=2 SU(N) gauge theory with 2N flavours. The theories associated with multiple duality walls are constructed by gluing together a basic building block, which is the theory associated with a single duality wall. We propose the prescription for gluing many copies of such a basic building block together as well as present the prescription for self-gluing. A number of dualities between such theories…
We study general two-dimensional sigma-models which do not possess manifest Lorentz invariance. We show how demanding that Lorentz invariance is recovered as an emergent on-shell symmetry constrains these sigma-models. The resulting actions have an underlying group-theoretic structure and resemble Poisson-Lie T-duality invariant actions. We consider the one-loop renormalization of these models and show that the quantum Lorentz anomaly is absent. We calculate the running of the couplings in general and show, with certain non-trivial examples, that this agrees with that of the T-dual models obta…
We present a procedure for application of T-duality transformation on scattering amplitudes of closed bosonic stringy states. These states arise due to compactification of closed string to lower spacetime dimensions through dimensional reduction. The amplitude, in the first quantized formalism, is computed by introducing vertex operators. The amplitude is constructed by the standard prescription and the vertex operators are required to respect conformal invariance. Such vertex operators are constructed in the weak field approximation. Therefore, the vertex operators of the stringy states of ou…
In order to study quantum aspects of $\s$-models related by Poisson--Lie T-duality, we construct three- and two-dimensional models that correspond, in one of the dual faces, to deformations of $S^3$ and $S^2$. Their classical canonical equivalence is demonstrated by means of a generating functional, which we explicitly compute. We examine how they behave under the renormalization group and show that dually related models have the same 1-loop beta functions for the coupling and deformation parameters. We find non-trivial fixed points in the ultraviolet, where the theories do not become asymptot…
The three-loop Adler $D$-function for ${\cal N}=1$ SQCD in the $\overline{\mbox{DR}}$ scheme is calculated. It appears that the result does not satisfy NSVZ-like equation which relates the $D$-function to the anomalous dimension of the matter superfields. However this NSVZ-like equation can be restored by a special tuning of the renormalization scheme. Also we demonstrate that the $D$-function defined in terms of the bare coupling does not satisfy the NSVZ-like equation in the case of using the regularization by dimensional reduction. The scheme-dependence of the $D$-function written in the fo…
We use a generalized Ricci tensor, defined for generalized metrics in Courant algebroids, to show that Poisson-Lie T-duality is compatible with the 1-loop renormalization group.
In this work, we pursue further consequences of a general formalism for non-covariant gauges developed in an earlier work (hep-th/0205042). We carry out further analysis of the additional restrictions on renormalizations noted in that work. We use the example of the axial gauge A_3=0. We find that if multiplicative renormalization together with ghost-decoupling is to hold, the ``prescription-term'' (that defines a prescription) cannot be chosen arbitrarily but has to satisfy certain non-trivial conditions (over and above those implied by the validity of power counting) arising from the WT iden…
We give a prescription for the computation of loop-level scattering amplitudes in pure Einstein gravity, and four-dimensional pure supergravities, using the color-kinematics duality. Amplitudes are constructed using double copies of pure (super-)Yang-Mills parts and additional contributions from double copies of fundamental matter, which are treated as ghosts. The opposite-statistics states cancel the unwanted dilaton and axion in the bosonic theory, as well as the extra matter supermultiplets in supergravities. As a spinoff, we obtain a prescription for obtaining amplitudes in supergravities …
The general prescription for constructing the continuum limit of a field theory is explained using Wilson's renormalization group. We then formulate the renormalization group in perturbation theory and apply it to the four dimensional phi4 theory and QED.
A non-principal value prescription is used to define the spurious singularities of Yang-Mills theory in the temporal gauge. Typical one-loop dimensionally-regularized temporal-gauge integrals in the prescription are explicitly calculated, and a regularization for the spurious gauge divergences is introduced. The divergent part of the one-loop self-energy is shown to be local and has the same form as that in the spatial axial gauge with the principal-value prescription. The renormalization of the theory is also briefly mentioned.
We propose a renormalization scheme for Entanglement Entropy of 3D CFTs with a 4D asymptotically AdS gravity dual in the context of the gauge/gravity correspondence. The procedure consists in adding the Chern form as a boundary term to the area functional of the Ryu-Takayanagi minimal surface. We provide an explicit prescription for the renormalized Entanglement Entropy, which is derived via the replica trick. This is achieved by considering a Euclidean gravitational action renormalized by the addition of the Chern form at the spacetime boundary, evaluated in the conically-singular replica man…
We relate a $l$-loop Feynman integral to a sum of phase space integrals, where the integrands are determined by the spanning trees of the original $l$-loop graph. Causality requires that the propagators of the trees have a modified $iδ$-prescription and we present a simple formula for the correct $iδ$-prescription.
We point out that the duality symmetry of free electromagnetism does not hold in the quantum theory if an arbitrary classical gravitational background is present. The symmetry breaks in the process of renormalization, as also happens with conformal invariance. We show that a similar duality-anomaly appears for a massless scalar field in $1+1$ dimensions.
In this work we present, for the first time, the non-perturbative renormalization for the unpolarized, helicity and transversity quasi-PDFs, in an RI' scheme. The proposed prescription addresses simultaneously all aspects of renormalization: logarithmic divergences, finite renormalization as well as the linear divergence which is present in the matrix elements of fermion operators with Wilson lines. Furthermore, for the case of the unpolarized quasi-PDFs, we describe how to eliminate the unwanted mixing with the twist-3 scalar operator. We utilize perturbation theory for the one-loop conversio…
Holographic duality conjecture has been proposed to be a novel non-perturbative theoretical framework for the description of strongly correlated electrons. However, the duality transformation is not specified to cause ambiguity in the application of this theoretical machinery to condensed matter physics. In this study, we propose a prescription for the holographic duality transformation. Based on recursive renormalization group (RG) transformations, we obtain an effective field theory, which manifests the RG flow of an effective action through the introduction of an extra dimension. Resorting …
In this dissertation we discuss various issues concerning application of the Dijkgraaf-Vafa (DV) conjecture to the study of supersymmetric gauge theories. The DV approach is very powerful in that it provides a systematic way of computing the nonperturbative, often even exact, superpotential of the system, which was possible only on a case-by-case basis in the more traditional approach based on holomorphy and symmetry. This conjecture has been checked for many nontrivial examples, but the range of its applicability remained unclear. We give an explicit example, Sp(N) theory with antisymmetric t…
We construct a three-dimensional geometry interpolating two different AdS spaces. From the dual quantum field theory viewpoint, it corresponds to a nontrivial renormalization group flow from a UV to another IR conformal field theory. On this geometry, we discuss the change of the central charge in a momentum-space and real-space renormalization group flow. The result shows in both renormalization prescriptions that the central charge monotonically decreases along the renormalization group flow.
The standard MS renormalization prescription is inadequate for dealing with multiscale problems. To illustrate this, we consider the computation of the effective potential in the Higgs-Yukawa model. It is argued that the most natural way to deal with this problem is to introduce a 2-scale renormalization group. We review various ways of implementing this idea and consider to what extent they fit in with the notion of heavy particle decoupling.
The Renormalization group in field theories happens to resemble dynamical systems in many ways. In this paper, we discuss the unexpected connection between chaos and duality in field theories. In a sense, that various dual field theories can emerge at the end of chaotic RG trajectories, and hence strong-weak duality in quantum field theory is a direct result of the chaotic flow of the renormalization group. This suggests that various properties of field and string theories could come into existence due to chaotic RG flow. We also conjecture the existence of dual quantum field theories in the h…
We introduce the gauge/gravity, or AdS/CFT, correspondence with an eye towards its application to strongly coupled systems. We provide an overview of the duality, including the AdS/CFT dictionary and holographic renormalization. We then discuss simple correlation functions in the context of renormalization group flow geometries, holographic thermodynamics and an application to the phase diagram of QCD, real-time correlators and the shear viscosity of strongly coupled field theories, holographic superconductors, and the application of holographic fermionic response to strange metals. These lect…
The prescription of Kawai, Lewellen and Tye for writing the closed string tree amplitudes as sums of products of open string tree amplitudes, is applied to the world sheet renormalization group equation. The main point is that regularization of the Minkowski (rather than Euclidean) world sheet theory allows factorization into left-moving and right-moving sectors to be maintained. Explicit calculations are done for the tachyon and the (gauge-fixed) graviton.
We present a two-loop computation of the beta functions and the anomalous dimensions of a $γ_5$-Yukawa model using differential renormalization. The calculation is carried out in coordinate space without modifying the space-time dimension and no ad-hoc prescription for $γ_5$ is needed. It is shown that this procedure is specially suited for theories involving $γ_5$, and it should be considered in analyzing chiral gauge theories.
We analyze some features of the perturbative quantization of Chern-Simons theory (CST) in the Landau gauge. In this gauge the theory is known to be perturbatively finite. We consider the renormalization scheme in which the renormalized parameter $k$ equals the bare or classical one and show that it constitutes a natural parametrization for the quantum theory. The reason is that, although in this renormalization scheme the value of the Green functions depends on the regularization used, comparison among different regularization methods shows that the observables (Wilson loops) are the same func…
We consider classical and quantum integrable sigma models and their relations with the solutions of renormalization group equations. We say that an integrable sigma model possesses the "nice" duality property if the dual quantum field theory has the weak coupling region. As an example, we consider the deformed $CP(n-1)$ sigma model with additional quantum degrees of freedom. We formulate the dual integrable field theory and use perturbed conformal field theory, perturbation theory, $S$-matrix, Bethe Ansatz and renormalization group methods to show that this field theory has the "nice" duality …
Through two loop effective potential we demonstrate that the $\bar{MS}$ scheme of dimensional regularization and Jackiw's prescription in cut-off regularization allow for the dynamical breaking solution in massless $λϕ^4$ theory, while the Coleman-Weinberg prescription does not. The beta function of the broken phase is negative, like in the one loop effective potential, but the UV fixed point is not zero, i.e., not an asymptotic freedom solution, unlike the one loop case. Some related issues were briefly discussed.
The Standard MS renormalization prescription is inadequate for dealing with multi-scale problems. To illustrate this we consider the computation of the effective potential in the Higgs-Yukawa model. It is argued that it is natural to employ a two-scale renormalization group. We give a modified version of a two-scale scheme introduced by Einhorn and Jones. In such schemes the beta functions necessarily contain potentially large logarithms of the RG scale ratios. For credible perturbation theory one must implement a large logarithms resumation on the beta functions themselves. We show how the in…
An example of the holographic correspondence between 2d, N=2 quantum field theories and classical 4d, N=2 supergravity theories is found. The constraints on the target space geometry of the 4d, N=2 non-linear sigma-models in N=2 supergravity background are interpreted as the renormalization flow equations in two dimensions. Our geometrical description of the renormalization flow is manifestly covariant under reparametrization of the 2d coupling constants. The proposed holography is described in terms of the (Weyl) anti-self-dual Einstein metrics, whose exact regular (Tod-Hitchin) solutions are…
In this paper the stability and the renormalizability of Yang-Mills theory in the Background Field Gauge are studied. By means of Ward Identities of Background gauge invariance and Slavnov-Taylor Identities the stability of the classical model is proved and, in a regularization independent way, its renormalizability is verified. A prescription on how to build the counterterms is given and the possible anomalies which may appear for Ward Identities and for Slavnov-Taylor Identities are shown.
We consider the renormalization of general gauge theories on curved space-time background, with the main assumption being the existence of a gauge-invariant and diffeomorphism invariant regularization. Using the Batalin-Vilkovisky (BV) formalism one can show that the theory possesses gauge invariant and diffeomorphism invariant renormalizability at quantum level, up to an arbitrary order of the loop expansion. Starting from this point we discuss the locality of the counterterms and the general prescription for constructing the power-counting renormalizable theories on curved background.
We give a prescription for calculating the holographic Weyl anomaly in arbitrary dimension within the framework based on the Hamilton-Jacobi equation proposed by de Boer, Verlinde and Verlinde. A few sample calculations are made and shown to reproduce the results that are obtained to this time with a different method. We further discuss continuum limits, and argue that the holographic renormalization group may describe the renormalized trajectory in the parameter space. We also clarify the relationship of the present formalism to the analysis carried out by Henningson and Skenderis.
We perform the resummation of the infrared logarithms in the inflationary universe. Applying the renormalization group, we derive the stochastic equations as the effective theory at the horizon. We focus on the conformal zero mode to respect local Lorentz symmetry. Under Gaussian approximation, we derive the fundamental equation for the Universe (EqU). We also derive the identical equation from the first law of thermodynamics in a dual geometric picture. We believe it is a convincing evidence for de Sitter duality between quantum stochastic physics on the boundary and classical thermodynamics …
Using as an example the Einstein gravity with the cosmological constant, we discuss the calculation of renormalization group functions off shell. We found, that gauge dependent terms should be absorbed by the nonlinear renormalization of metric. Nevertheless, some terms can be included in the renormalization of Newton's constant. This ambiguity in the renormalization prescription is discussed.
We establish a version of the Momentum/Complexity (PC) duality between the rate of operator complexity growth and a radial component of bulk momentum for a test system falling into a black hole. In systems of finite entropy, our map remains valid for arbitrarily late times after scrambling. The asymptotic regime of linear complexity growth is associated to a frozen momentum in the interior of the black hole, measured with respect to a time foliation by extremal codimension-one surfaces which saturate without reaching the singularity. The detailed analysis in this paper uses the Volume-Complexi…
We derive a manifestly gauge invariant low energy blocked action for Yang-Mills theory using operator cutoff regularization, a prescription which renders the theory finite with a regulating smearing function constructed for the proper-time integration. By embedding the momentum cutoff scales in the smearing function, operator cutoff formalism allows for a direct application of Wilson-Kadanoff renormalization group to Yang-Mills theory in a completely gauge symmetry preserving manner. In particular, we obtain a renormalization group flow equation which takes into consideration the contributions…
The two loop effective potential of massless $λϕ^4$ theory was presented in several regularization and renormalization prescriptions and the dynamical symmetry breaking solution was obtained in strong coupling situation in several prescriptions except the Coleman-Weinberg prescription. The beta function in the broken phase becomes negative and the UV fixed point turns out to be a strong coupling one, and its numeric value varies with renormalization prescriptions, a detail in difference from the asymptotic free solution in one loop case. The symmetry breaking phase was shown to be an entirely …
We study minimal co-dimension-2 surfaces in the asymptotically flat background of extremal 3-brane solutions in ten-dimensional type IIB supergravity. A conjectured open-closed string duality combined with the Ryu-Takayanagi prescription implies that the area of the surfaces we consider could be interpreted as the entanglement entropy of a dual (3+1)-dimensional large-N, strongly-coupled open string field theory on D3-branes. As the size of the surface is varied we observe a transition from a volume law to an area law in agreement with expectations from non-locality in an open string field the…
In this work we clarify aspects of renormalization on curved backgrounds focussing on the potential ramifications on the amplitude of inflationary perturbations. We provide an alternate view of the often used adiabatic prescription by deriving a correspondence between the adiabatic subtraction terms and traditional renormalization. Specifically, we show how adiabatic subtraction can be expressed as a set of counter terms that are introduced by redefining the bare parameters of the action. Our representation of adiabatic subtraction then allows us to easily find other renormalization prescripti…
We illustrate a duality relation between one-loop integrals and single-cut phase-space integrals. The duality relation is realised by a modification of the customary +i0 prescription of the Feynman propagators. The new prescription regularizing the propagators, which we write in a Lorentz covariant form, compensates for the absence of multiple-cut contributions that appear in the Feynman Tree Theorem. The duality relation can be extended to generic one-loop quantities, such as Green's functions, in any relativistic, local and unitary field theories.
We study the thermodynamics and the jet quenching parameter of a black hole solution dual to a SQCD-like plasma which includes the backreaction of fundamental flavors. The free energy is calculated in several ways, including some recently proposed holographic renormalization prescriptions. The validity of the latter is confirmed by the consistency with the other methods. The resulting thermodynamic properties are similar to the Little String Theory ones: the temperature is fixed at the Hagedorn value and the free energy is vanishing. Finally, an accurate analysis of the relevant string configu…
