Conformal blocks for correlation functions of tensor operators play an increasingly important role for the conformal bootstrap programme. We develop a universal approach to such spinning blocks through the harmonic analysis of certain bundles over a coset of the conformal group. The resulting Casimir equations are given by a matrix version of the Calogero-Sutherland Hamiltonian that describes the scattering of interacting spinning particles in a 1-dimensional external potential. The approach is illustrated in several examples including fermionic seed blocks in 3D CFT where they take a very simple form.
In this paper we develop further the relation between conformal four-point blocks involving external spinning fields and Calogero-Sutherland quantum mechanics with matrix-valued potentials. To this end, the analysis of \cite{Schomerus:2016epl} is extended to arbitrary dimensions and to the case of boundary two-point functions. In particular, we construct the potential for any set of external tensor fields. Some of the resulting Schrödinger equations are mapped explicitly to the known Casimir equations for 4-dimensional seed conformal blocks. Our approach furnishes solutions of Casimir equation…
This work takes place over a conformally flat spin manifold (M,g). We prove existence and uniqueness of the conformally equivariant quantization valued in spinor differential operators, and provide an explicit formula for it when restricted to first order operators. The Poisson algebra of symbols is realized as a space of functions on the supercotangent bundle, endowed with a symplectic form depending on the metric g. It admits two different actions of the conformal Lie algebra, one tensorial and one Hamiltonian. They are intertwined by the uniquely defined conformally equivariant superization…
We consider conformal defects with spins under the rotation group acting on the transverse directions. They are described in the embedding space formalism in a similar manner to spinning local operators, and their correlation functions with bulk and defect local operators are determined by the conformal symmetry. The operator product expansion (OPE) structure of spinning conformal defects is examined by decomposing it into the spinning defect OPE block that packages all the contribution from a conformal multiplet. The integral representation of the block derived in the shadow formalism is faci…
We revise the use of 8-dimensional conformal, complex (Cartan) domains as a base for the construction of conformally invariant quantum (field) theory, either as phase or configuration spaces. We follow a gauge-invariant Lagrangian approach (of nonlinear sigma-model type) and use a generalized Dirac method for the quantization of constrained systems, which resembles in some aspects the standard approach to quantizing coadjoint orbits of a group G. Physical wave functions, Haar measures, orthonormal basis and reproducing (Bergman) kernels are explicitly calculated in and holomorphic picture in t…
For conformal field theories in arbitrary dimensions, we introduce a method to derive the conformal blocks corresponding to the exchange of a traceless symmetric tensor appearing in four point functions of operators with spin. Using the embedding space formalism, we show that one can express all such conformal blocks in terms of simple differential operators acting on the basic scalar conformal blocks. This method gives all conformal blocks for conformal field theories in three dimensions. We demonstrate how this formalism can be applied in a few simple examples.
We construct conformal three-point functions in momentum space with a general tensor and conserved currents of spin $1$ and $2$. While conformal correlators in momentum space have been studied especially in the connection with cosmology, correlators involving a tensor of general spin and scaling dimension have not been studied very much yet. Such a direction is unavoidable when we go beyond three-point functions because general tensors always appear as an intermediate state. In this paper, as a first step, we solve the Ward-Takahashi identities for correlators of a general tensor and conserved…
We develop the embedding formalism for conformal field theories, aimed at doing computations with symmetric traceless operators of arbitrary spin. We use an index-free notation where tensors are encoded by polynomials in auxiliary polarization vectors. The efficiency of the formalism is demonstrated by computing the tensor structures allowed in n-point conformal correlation functions of tensors operators. Constraints due to tensor conservation also take a simple form in this formalism. Finally, we obtain a perfect match between the number of independent tensor structures of conformal correlato…
We calculate the scaling dimensions of operators with large global charge and spin in 2+1 dimensional conformal field theories. By the state-operator correspondence, these operators correspond to superfluids with vortices and can be systematically studied using effective field theory. As the spin increases from zero to the unitarity bound, the superfluid state corresponding to the lowest dimension operator passes through three distinct regimes: (1) a single phonon, (2) two vortices, and (3) multiple vortices. We also calculate correlation functions with two such operators and the Noether curre…
We explore AdS/CFT correspondence between geodesic Witten diagrams and conformal blocks (conformal partial waves) with an external symmetric traceless tensor field. We derive an expression for the conformal partial wave with an external spin-1 field and show that this expression is equivalent to the amplitude of the geodesic Witten diagram. We also show the equivalence by using conformal Casimir equation in embedding formalism. Furthermore, we extend the construction of the amplitude of the geodesic Witten diagram to an external arbitrary symmetric traceless tensor field. We show our construct…
We study the kinematics of correlation functions of local and extended operators in a conformal field theory. We present a new method for constructing the tensor structures associated to primary operators in an arbitrary bosonic representation of the Lorentz group. The recipe yields the explicit structures in embedding space, and can be applied to any correlator of local operators, with or without a defect. We then focus on the two-point function of traceless symmetric primaries in the presence of a conformal defect, and explain how to compute the conformal blocks. In particular, we illustrate…
This paper develops a method to compute any bosonic conformal block as a series expansion in the optimal radial coordinate introduced by Hogervorst and Rychkov. The method reduces to the known result when the external operators are all the same scalar operator, but it allows to compute conformal blocks for external operators with spin. Moreover, we explain how to write closed form recursion relations for the coefficients of the expansions. We study three examples of four point functions in detail: one vector and three scalars; two vectors and two scalars; two spin 2 tensors and two scalars. Fi…
We study conformal partial waves (CPWs) in Mellin space with totally symmetric external operators of arbitrary integer spin. The exchanged spin is arbitrary, and includes mixed symmetry and (partially)-conserved representations. In a basis of CPWs recently introduced in arXiv:1702.08619, we find a remarkable factorisation of the external spin dependence in their Mellin representation. This property allows a relatively straightforward study of inversion formulae to extract OPE data from the Mellin representation of spinning 4pt correlators and in particular, to extract closed-form expressions f…
In this paper we consider systems of quantum particles in the $4d$ Euclidean space which enjoy conformal symmetry. The algebraic relations for conformal-invariant combinations of positions and momenta are used to construct a solution of the Yang-Baxter equation in the unitary irreducibile representations of the principal series $Δ=2+iν$ for any left/right spins $\ell,\dot{\ell}$ of the particles. Such relations are interpreted in the language of Feynman diagrams as integral \emph{star-triangle} identites between propagators of a conformal field theory. We prove the quantum integrability of a s…
We compute, to the first non-trivial order in the $ε$-expansion of a perturbed scalar field theory, the anomalous dimensions of an infinite class of primary operators with arbitrary spin $\ell=0,1,..$, including as a particular case the weakly broken higher-spin currents, using only constraints from conformal symmetry. Following the bootstrap philosophy, no reference is made to any Lagrangian, equations of motion or coupling constants. Even the space dimensions d are left free. The interaction is implicitly turned on through the local operators by letting them acquire anomalous dimensions. Whe…
We study the structure of series expansions of general spinning conformal blocks. We find that the terms in these expansions are naturally expressed by means of special functions related to matrix elements of Spin(d) representations in Gelfand-Tsetlin basis, of which the Gegenbauer polynomials are a special case. We study the properties of these functions and explain how they can be computed in practice. We show how the Casimir equation in Dolan-Osborn coordinates leads to a simple one-step recursion relation for the coefficients of the series expansion of general spinning conformal block. The…
We define circuits given by unitary representations of Lorentzian conformal field theory in 3 and 4 dimensions. Our circuits start from a spinning primary state, allowing us to generalize formulas for the circuit complexity obtained from circuits starting from scalar primary states. These results are nicely reproduced in terms of the geometry of coadjoint orbits of the conformal group. In contrast to the complexity geometry obtained from scalar primary states, the geometry is more complicated and the existence of conjugate points, signaling the saturation of complexity, remains open.
We consider the conformal dimension of an operator with large spin, using a spinning D3-brane with electric flux in AdS_5 x S^5 instead of spinning fundamental string. This spinning D3-brane solution seems to correspond to an operator made by taking trace in a large symmetric representation. The conformal dimension, the spin and the R-charge show a scaling relation in a certain region of parameters. In the small string charge limit, the result is consistent with the fundamental string picture. There is a phase transition when the fundamental string charge become larger than a certain critical …
We present an expression for the four-point conformal blocks of symmetric traceless operators of arbitrary spin as an integral over a pair of geodesics in Anti-de Sitter space, generalizing the geodesic Witten diagram formalism of Hijano et al [arXiv:1508.00501] to arbitrary spin. As an intermediate step in the derivation, we identify a convenient basis of bulk three-point interaction vertices which give rise to all possible boundary three point structures. We highlight a direct connection between the representation of the conformal block as a geodesic Witten diagram and the shadow operator fo…
We develop a systematic framework to compute the conformal partial wave expansions (CPWEs) of tree-level four-point Witten diagrams with totally symmetric external fields of arbitrary mass and integer spin in AdS$_{d+1}$. Employing this framework, we determine the CPWE of a generic exchange Witten diagram with spinning exchanged field. As an intermediate step, we diagonalise the linear map between spinning three-point conformal structures and spinning cubic couplings in AdS. As a concrete application, we compute all exchange diagrams in the type A higher-spin gauge theory on AdS$_{d+1}$, which…
We systematically study correlators of a generic conformal field theory with a global O(2) symmetry in a sector of large global charge. We focus in particular on three- and four-point correlators with conserved current insertions sandwiched between spinful excited states corresponding to phonons over the large-charge vacuum. We also discuss loop corrections to the scaling dimensions and observe multiple logarithms in even dimensions.
In this article, we explicitly compute in momentum space the three and four-point correlation functions involving scalar and spinning operators in the free bosonic and the free fermionic theory in three dimensions. We also evaluate the five-point function of the scalar operator in the free bosonic theory. We discuss techniques which are more efficient than the usual PV reduction to evaluate one loop integrals. Our techniques can be easily generalised to momentum space correlators of complicated spinning operators and to higher point functions. The three dimensional fermionic theory has the int…
We consider the 1-loop correction to the energy of folded spinning string solution in the AdS_3 part of AdS_5 x S^5. The classical string solution is expressed in terms of elliptic functions so an explicit computation of the corresponding fluctuation determinants for generic values of the spin appears to be a non-trivial problem. We show how it can be solved exactly by using the static gauge expression for the string partition function (which we demonstrate to be equivalent to the conformal gauge one) and observing that all the corresponding second order fluctuation operators can be put into t…
We derive closed-form expressions for all ingredients of the Zamolodchikov-like recursion relation for general spinning conformal blocks in 3-dimensional conformal field theory. This result opens a path to efficient automatic generation of conformal block tables, which has immediate applications in numerical conformal bootstrap program. Our derivation is based on an understanding of null states and conformally-invariant differential operators in momentum space, combined with a careful choice of the relevant tensor structures bases. This derivation generalizes straightforwardly to higher spacet…
We investigate the hidden symmetries of the Kerr-Newman, of the D=5 minimal gauged supergravity which admits a Killing-Maxwell system in the sense of Carter and of higher dimensional spacetimes in the presence of Killing-Yano torsion. We note that when an electromagnetic tensor is present and an associated Killing-Maxwell system can be constructed in the sense of Carter, the Killing- Maxwell field becomes a PCKY (primary conformal Killing-Yano) tensor or a PGCKY (primary generalized conformal Killing-Yano) tensor, the latter in the presence of torsion. We point out the structure of the Dirac-t…
We compute the radiation emitted by a particle on the innermost stable circular orbit of a rapidly spinning black hole both (a) analytically, working to leading order in the deviation from extremality and (b) numerically, with a new high-precision Teukolsky code. We find excellent agreement between the two methods. We confirm previous estimates of the overall scaling of the power radiated, but show that there are also small oscillations all the way to extremality. Furthermore, we reveal an intricate mode-by-mode structure in the flux to infinity, with only certain modes having the dominant sca…
We extend the work of \cite{Ferrara:1971vh},\cite{Ferrara:1973vz}, to obtain an integral expression of OPE blocks for spinning primaries in CFT$_{2}$. We observe, when the OPE blocks are made out of conserved spinning primaries, the integral becomes a product of two copies of weighted AdS$_{2}$ fields, smeared along geodesics. In this way, conserved current OPE blocks in CFT$_{2}$ have a different representation in terms of AdS$_{2}$ geodesic operators, in stead of viewing them as AdS$_{3}$ geodesic operators. We also show, how this representation can be related to AdS$_{3}$ massless higher sp…
We explore how to compute, classically at strong coupling, correlation functions of local operators corresponding to classical spinning string states. The picture we obtain is of `fattened' Witten diagrams, the evaluation of which turns out to be surprisingly subtle and requires a modification of the naive classical action due to a necessary projection onto appropriate wave functions. We examine string solutions which compute the simplest case of a two-point function and reproduce the right scaling with the anomalous dimensions corresponding to the energies of the associated spinning string so…
The 4D 4-point scattering amplitude of massless scalars via a massive exchange is expressed in a basis of conformal primary particle wavefunctions. This celestial amplitude is expanded in a basis of 2D conformal partial waves on the unitary principal series, and then rewritten as a sum over 2D conformal blocks via contour deformation. The conformal blocks include intermediate exchanges of spinning light-ray states, as well as scalar states with positive integer conformal weights. The conformal block prefactors are found as expected to be quadratic in the celestial OPE coefficients.
We continue the exploration of multipoint scalar comb channel blocks for conformal field theories in 3D and 4D. The central goal here is to construct novel comb channel cross ratios that are well adapted to perform projections onto all intermediate primary fields. More concretely, our new set of cross ratios includes three for each intermediate mixed symmetry tensor exchange. These variables are designed such that the associated power series expansion coincides with the sum over descendants. The leading term of this expansion is argued to factorise into a product of lower point blocks. We esta…
We study out-of-time ordered four-point functions in two dimensional conformal field theories by suitably analytically continuing the Euclidean correlator. For large central charge theories with a sparse spectrum, chaotic dynamics is revealed in an exponential decay; this is seen directly in the contribution of the vacuum block to the correlation function. However, contributions from individual non-vacuum blocks with large spin and small twist dominate over the vacuum block. We argue, based on holographic intuition, that suitable summations over such intermediate states in the block decomposit…
We carry out a systematic study of primary operators in the conformal field theory of a free Weyl fermion. Using SO(4,2) characters we develop counting formulas for primaries constructed using a fixed number of fermion fields. By specializing to particular classes of primaries, we derive very explicit formulas for the generating functions for the number of primaries in these classes. We present a duality map between primary operators in the fermion field theory and polynomial functions. This allows us to construct the primaries that were counted. Next we show that these classes of primary fiel…
Three-point correlators of spinning operators admit multiple tensor structures compatible with conformal symmetry. For conserved currents in three dimensions, we point out that helicity commutes with conformal transformations and we use this to construct three-point structures which diagonalize helicity. In this helicity basis, OPE data is found to be diagonal for mean-field correlators of conserved currents and stress tensor. Furthermore, we use Lorentzian inversion formula to obtain anomalous dimensions for conserved currents at bulk tree-level order in holographic theories, which we compare…
A Killing-Yano tensor is an antisymmetric tensor obeying a first-order differential constraint similar to that obeyed by a Killing vector. In this article we consider generalisations of such objects, focusing on the conformal case. These generalised conformal Killing-Yano tensors are of mixed symmetry type and obey the constraint that the largest irreducible representation of $o(n)$ contained in the tensor constructed from the first-derivative applied to such an object should vanish. Such tensors appear naturally in the context of spinning particles having $N_0=1$ worldline supersymmetry and i…
Large $N$ conformal field theories often admit unitary renormalization group flows triggered by double-trace deformations. We compute the change in scalar four-point functions under double-trace flow, to leading order in $1/N$. This has a simple dual in AdS, where the flow is implemented by a change of boundary conditions, and provides a physical interpretation of single-valued conformal partial waves. We extract the change in the conformal dimensions and three-point coefficients of infinite families of double-trace composite operators. Some of these quantities are found to be sign-definite un…
Conformal blocks are the central ingredient of the conformal bootstrap programme. We elaborate on our recent observation that uncovered a relation with wave functions of an integrable Calogero-Sutherland Hamiltonian in order to develop a systematic theory of conformal blocks. Our main goal here is to review central ingredients of the Heckman-Opdam theory for scattering states of Calogero-Sutherland models with special emphasis to the relation with scalar 4-point blocks. We will also discuss a number of direct consequences for conformal blocks, including a new series expansion for blocks of arb…
The constraints of conformal bootstrap are applied to investigate a set of conformal field theories in various dimensions. The prescriptions can be applied to both unitary and non unitary theories allowing for the study of the spectrum of low-lying primary operators of the theory. We evaluate the lowest scaling dimensions of the local operators associated with the Yang-Lee edge singularity for $2 \le D \le 6$. Likewise we obtain the scaling dimensions of six scalars and four spinning operators for the 3d critical Ising model. Our findings are in agreement with existing results to a per mill pr…
Kavli Institute for Theoretical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院大学理论科学研究所）；Institute of Theoretical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院理论物理研究所）；School of Physical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院大学物理科学学院）
The decomposition of correlation functions into conformal blocks is an indispensable tool in conformal field theory. For spinning correlators, non-trivial tensor structures are needed to mediate between the conformal blocks, which are functions of cross ratios only, and the correlation functions that depend on insertion points in the $d$-dimensional Euclidean space. Here we develop an entirely group theoretic approach to tensor structures, based on the Cartan decomposition of the conformal group. It provides us with a new universal formula for tensor structures and thereby a systematic derivat…
We initiate a conformal bootstrap program to study AdS3/BCFT2 with heavy excitations. We start by solving the bootstrap equations associated with two-point functions of scalar/non-scalar primaries under the assumption that one-point functions vanish. These correspond to gravity with a brane and a non-spinning/spinning particle where the brane and the particle do not intersect with each other. From the bootstrap equations, we obtain the energy spectrum and the modified black hole threshold. We then carefully analyze the gravity duals and find the results perfectly match the BCFT analysis. In pa…
We develop a new embedding-space formalism for AdS$_4$ and CFT$_3$ that is useful for evaluating Witten diagrams for operators with spin. The basic variables are Killing spinors for the bulk AdS$_4$ and conformal Killing spinors for the boundary CFT$_3$. The more conventional embedding space coordinates $X^I$ for the bulk and $P^I$ for the boundary are bilinears in these new variables. We write a simple compact form for the general bulk-boundary propagator, and, for boundary operators of spin $\ell \geq 1$, we determine its conservation properties at the unitarity bound. In our CFT$_3$ formali…
Recently, with the help of Parisi-Sourlas supersymmetry an intriguing relation was found expressing the four-point scalar conformal block of a (d-2)-dimensional CFT in terms of a five-term linear combination of blocks of a d-dimensional CFT, with constant coefficients. We extend this dimensional reduction relation to all higher-point scalar conformal blocks of arbitrary topology restricted to scalar exchanges. We show that the constant coefficients appearing in the finite term higher-point dimensional reduction obey an interesting factorization property allowing them to be determined in terms …
We compute spinning four point functions in the quasi-fermionic three dimensional conformal field theory with slightly broken higher spin symmetry at finite t'Hooft coupling. More concretely, we obtain a formula for $\langle j_s j_{\tilde{0}} j_{\tilde{0}} j_{\tilde{0}} \rangle$, where $j_s$ is a higher spin current and $j_{\tilde{0}}$ is the scalar single trace operator. Our procedure consists in writing a plausible ansatz in Mellin space and using crossing, pseudo-conservation and Regge boundedness to fix all undetermined coefficients. Our method can potentially be generalised to compute all…
In this work, building up on [1] we present momentum space Ward identities related to broken higher spin symmetry as an alternate approach to computing correlators of spinning operators in interacting theories such as the quasi-fermionic and quasi-bosonic theories. The direct Feynman diagram approach to computing correlation functions is intricate and in general has been performed only in specific kinematic regimes. We use higher spin equations to obtain the parity even and parity odd contributions to two-, three- and four-point correlators involving spinning and scalar operators in a general …
