The conformal anomaly is computed on even $d$--spheres for a $p$--form propagating according to the Branson--Gover higher derivative, conformally covariant operators. The system is set up on a $q$--deformed sphere and the conformal anomaly is computed as a rational function of the derivative order, $2k$, and of $q$. The anomaly is shown to be an extremum at the round sphere ($q=1$) only for $k<d/2$. At these integer values, therefore, the entanglement entropy is minus the conformal anomaly, as usual.
The unconstrained $p$--form conformal anomaly on the full sphere is shown to be given by an integral over the Plancherel measure for a coexact form on hyperbolic space in one dimension higher.A natural ghost sum is constructed and leads to quantities which, for critical forms, i.e. when $2k=d-2p$, are, remarkably, a simple combination of standard quantities, for usual second order, $k=1$, propagation, when these are available. Our values coincide with a recent hyperbolic computation of David and Mukherjee.Values are suggested for the Casimir energy on the Einstein cylinder from the behaviour of the conformal anomaly as $q\to0$ and compared with known results written as alternating sums over scalar values.
We calculate conformal anomalies in noncommutative gauge theories by using the path integral method (Fujikawa's method). Along with the axial anomalies and chiral gauge anomalies, conformal anomalies take the form of the straightforward Moyal deformation in the corresponding conformal anomalies in ordinary gauge theories. However, the Moyal star product leads to the difference in the coefficient of the conformal anomalies between noncommutative gauge theories and ordinary gauge theories. The $β$ (Callan-Symanzik) functions which are evaluated from the coefficient of the conformal anomalies coi…
A cancellation of conformal anomalies in d=4 for the $C^2+\bar C^2$ and of chiral anomalies for the $C^2-\bar C^2$ is known in N-extended supergravities with $N \geq 5$. We propose an explanation of these cancellations using supersymmetry and dimension of linearized chiral superfields. We contrast these models with the ones with $N < 5$, where both types of anomalies are known to be present.
We study the effect of conformal anomalies on the hydrodynamic description of conformal field theories in even spacetime dimensions. We consider equilibrium curved backgrounds characterized by a time-like Killing vector and construct a local low energy effective action that captures the conformal anomalies. Using as a special background the Rindler spacetime we derive a formula for the anomaly effect on the hydrodynamic pressure. We find that this anomalous effect is only due to the Euler central charge.
We compute corrections to the Einstein field equations which are induced by the anomalous effective actions associated to the type A conformal anomaly, both for the (non-local) Riegert action, as well as for the local action with dilaton. In all cases considered we find that these corrections can be very large.
We compute conformal anomalies for conformal field theories with free conformal scalars and massless spin $1/2$ fields in hyperbolic space $\mathbb{H}^d$ and in the ball $\mathbb{B}^d$, for $2\leq d\leq 7$. These spaces are related by a conformal transformation. In even dimensional spaces, the conformal anomalies on $\mathbb{H}^{2n}$ and $\mathbb{B}^{2n}$ are shown to be identical. In odd dimensional spaces, the conformal anomaly on $\mathbb{B}^{2n+1}$ comes from a boundary contribution, which exactly coincides with that of $\mathbb{H}^{2n+1}$ provided one identifies the UV short-distance cuto…
In this paper, we give a general axiomatization of anomalies in closed and open conformal field theories. In particular, we generalize Segal's notion of modular functor to a setting where the ``set of labels'' is a 2-vector space. In the case of open conformal field theory, the ``set of $D$-branes'' is a 3-vector space. We also define a ``topological group completion'' of the symmetric bimonoidal category of finite-dimensional vector spaces, and propose it as a candidate for labelling conformal field theories whose modular functors are super-vector spaces.
We compute the conformal anomalies of boundary CFTs for scalar and fermionic fields propagating in AdS spacetime at one-loop. The coefficients are quantized, with values related to the mass-spectra for Kaluza-Klein compactifications of Supergravity on AdS5xS5 and AdS7xS4. Our approach interprets the boundary partition function of fields propagating on AdS spacetime in terms of wave-functionals that satisfy the functional Schrodinger equation.
I present two calculations of the holographic Weyl anomalies induced by Chern-Simons gravity theories alternative to the ones presented in the literature. The calculations presented here rest on the extension from Chern-Simons to Transgression forms as lagrangians, motivated by gauge invariance, which automatically yields the boundary terms suitable to regularize the theory. The procedure followed here sheds light in the structure of Chern-Simons gravities and their regularization.
Using trace anomalies, we determine the vacuum stress tensors of arbitrary even dimensional conformal field theories in Weyl flat backgrounds. We demonstrate a simple relation between the Casimir energy on the real line times a sphere and the type A anomaly coefficient. This relation generalizes earlier results in two and four dimensions. These field theory results for the Casimir are shown to be consistent with holographic predictions in two, four, and six dimensions.
We consider conformal and 't Hooft anomalies in six-dimensional ${\cal N}=(1,0)$ superconformal field theories, focusing on those conformal anomalies that determine the two- and three-point functions of conserved flavor and $SU(2)_R$ currents, as well as stress tensors. By analyzing these correlators in superspace, we explain why the number of independent conformal anomalies is reduced in supersymmetric theories. For instance, non-supersymmetric CFTs in six dimensions have three independent conformal $c$-anomalies, which determine the stress-tensor two- and three-point functions, but in superc…
We study various aspects of warped conformal field theories (WCFTs) in two dimensions. We find new Lagrangian WCFTs, and show that all known Lagrangian WCFTs are local only after an infinite tuning. We deduce the anomalies of WCFTs and relate them to central charges, as well as analyze WCFT hydrostatics, thereby re-deriving the warped analogue of the Cardy formula. Finally, we point out that holographic WCFTs are semi-local, that matter fields in spacelike WAdS$_3$ black hole geometries exhibit a Gregory-Laflamme-like instability, and that WAdS$_3$ throats do not admit a decoupling limit.
We consider two $d \geq 2$ conformal field theories (CFTs) glued together along a codimension one conformal interface. The conformal anomaly of such a system contains both bulk and interface contributions. In a curved-space setup, we compute the heat kernel coefficients and interface central charges in free theories. The results are consistent with the known boundary CFT data via the folding trick. In $d=4$, two interface invariants generally allowed as anomalies turn out to have vanishing interface charges. These missing invariants are constructed from components with odd parity with respect …
From chiral to conformal anomalies: a double copy perspective for CFT correlators
Università del Salento（萨伦托大学）；INFN Sezione di Lecce（意大利国家核物理研究所莱切分部）；National Center for HPC, Big Data and Quantum Computing（高性能计算、大数据与量子计算国家中心）；CNR-nanotec, Lecce（意大利国家研究委员会纳米技术研究所莱切分部）
The trace anomaly of conformal field theories in four dimensions is characterized by '$a$' and '$c$'-functions. The scaling properties of the effective action of a CFT in the presence of boundaries is shown to be determined by $a$, $c$ and two new functions (charges) related to boundary effects. The boundary charges are computed for different theories and different boundary conditions. One of the boundary charges depends on the bulk $c$ charge.
We give a complete geometric description of conformal anomalies in arbitrary, (necessarily even) dimension. They fall into two distinct classes: the first, based on Weyl invariants that vanish at integer dimensions, arises from finite -- and hence scale-free -- contributions to the effective gravitational action through a mechanism analogous to that of the (gauge field) chiral anomaly. Like the latter, it is unique and proportional to a topological term, the Euler density of the dimension, thereby preserving scale invariance. The contributions of the second class, requiring introduction of a s…
We show that the anomaly-mediated supersymmetry breaking via the Kahler and sigma-model anomalies is suppressed by conformal dynamics in the supersymmetry breaking sector.
We solve the Wess-Zumino consistency conditions of $\mathcal{N}=1$ off-shell conformal supergravity in four dimensions and determine the general form of the superconformal anomalies for arbitrary $a$ and $c$ anomaly coefficients to leading non trivial order in the gravitino. Besides the well known Weyl and $R$-symmetry anomalies, we compute explicitly the fermionic $\mathcal{Q}$- and $\mathcal{S}$-supersymmetry anomalies. In particular, we show that $\mathcal{Q}$-supersymmetry is anomalous if and only if $R$-symmetry is anomalous. The $\mathcal{Q}$- and $\mathcal{S}$-supersymmetry anomalies gi…
Conformal defects describe the universal behaviors of a conformal field theory (CFT) in the presence of a boundary or more general impurities. The coupled critical system is characterized by new conformal anomalies which are analogous to, and generalize those of standalone CFTs. Here we study the conformal $a$- and $c$-anomalies of four dimensional defects in CFTs of general spacetime dimensions greater than four. We prove that under unitary defect renormalization group (RG) flows, the defect $a$-anomaly must decrease, thus establishing the defect $a$-theorem. For conformal defects preserving …
In previous work, we showed that an anomaly in the one point function of marginal operators is related by the Wess-Zumino condition to the Euler density anomaly on a two dimensional defect or boundary. Here we analyze in detail the two point functions of marginal operators with the stress tensor and with the displacement operator in three dimensions. We show how to get the boundary anomaly from these bulk two point functions and find perfect agreement with our anomaly effective action. For a higher dimensional conformal field theory with a four dimensional defect, we describe for the first tim…
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 deriv…
We present a brief review of some recent results on conformal anomalies in four and more dimensions. The discussion is intended for relativists, so some background on the quantum origin of anomalies and of their simple properties in D=2 is also provided. Topics treated include a critical review of the effective gravitational action uniqueness problem and the derivation of beta functions, independent of ultraviolet behavior, from the type B anomaly.
We present new anomalies in two-dimensional ${\mathcal N} =(2, 2)$ superconformal theories. They obstruct the shortening conditions of chiral and twisted chiral multiplets at coincident points. This implies that marginal couplings cannot be promoted to background superfields in short representations. Therefore, standard results that follow from ${\mathcal N} =(2, 2)$ spurion analysis are invalidated. These anomalies appear only if supersymmetry is enhanced beyond ${\mathcal N} =(2, 2)$. These anomalies explain why the conformal manifolds of the K3 and $T^4$ sigma models are not Kähler and do n…
The two-point function of exactly marginal operators leads to a universal contribution to the trace anomaly in even dimensions. We study aspects of this trace anomaly, emphasizing its interpretation as a sigma model, whose target space M is the space of conformal field theories (a.k.a. the conformal manifold). When the underlying quantum field theory is supersymmetric, this sigma model has to be appropriately supersymmetrized. As examples, we consider in some detail N=(2,2) and N=(0,2) supersymmetric theories in d=2 and N=2 supersymmetric theories in d=4. This reasoning leads to new informatio…
We provide a non-renormalization theorem for the coefficients of the conformal anomaly associated with operators with vanishing anomalous dimensions. Such operators include conserved currents and chiral operators in superconformal field theories. We illustrate the theorem by computing the conformal anomaly of 2-point functions both by a computation in the conformal field theory and via the adS/CFT correspondence. Our results imply that 2- and 3-point functions of chiral primary operators in N=4 SU(N) SYM will not renormalize provided that a ``generalized Adler-Bardeen theorem'' holds. We furth…
We compute free energies as well as conformal anomalies associated with boundaries for a conformal free scalar field. To that matter, we introduce the family of spaces of the form $\mathbb{S}^a\times \mathbb{H}^b$, which are conformally related to $\mathbb{S}^{a+b}$. For the case of $a=1$, related to the entanglement entropy across $\mathbb{S}^{b-1}$, we provide some new explicit computations of entanglement entropies at weak coupling. We then compute the free energy for spaces $\mathbb{S}^a\times \mathbb{H}^b$ for different values of $a$ and $b$. For spaces $\mathbb{S}^{2n+1}\times \mathbb{H}…
We study string quantum corrections to the ratio of latitude and circular Wilson loops in N=4 super-Yang-Mills theory at strong coupling. Conformal gauge for the corresponding minimal surface in AdS(5)xS(5) is singular and we show that an IR anomaly associated with the divergence in the conformal factor removes previously reported discrepancy with the exact field-theory result. We also carefully check conformal anomaly cancellation and recalculate fluctuation determinants by directly evaluating phaseshifts for all the fluctuation modes.
The Wess-Zumino consistency condition allows more exotic forms of anomalies than those we usually encounter. For example in two-dimensional conformal field theories in the curved background with space-time dependent coupling constant $λ^i(x)$, a $U(1)$ current could possess anomalous divergence of the form $D^μJ_μ= \tilde{c} R + χ_{ij} \partial^μλ^i \partial_μλ_j + \tildeχ_{ij} ε^{μν} \partial_μλ^i \partial_νλ^j + \cdots $. Another example is the CP odd Pontryagin density in four-dimensional Weyl anomaly. We could, however, argue that they are impossible in conformal field theories because the…
Hairy black holes in the gravitational decoupling setup are studied from the perspective of conformal anomalies. Fluctuations of decoupled sources can be computed by measuring the way the trace anomaly-to-holographic Weyl anomaly ratio differs from unit. Therefore the gravitational decoupling parameter governing three hairy black hole metrics is then bounded to a range wherein one can reliably emulate AdS/CFT with gravitational decoupled solutions, in the tensor vacuum regime.
I review the foundations of irrational conformal field theory (ICFT), which includes rational conformal field theory as a small subspace. Highlights of the review include the Virasoro master equation and the generalized Knizhnik-Zamolodchikov equations for the correlators of ICFT on the sphere and the torus.
We apply our previous work on Green's functions for the four-dimensional quaternionic Taub-NUT manifold to obtain a scalar two-point function on the homogeneously squashed three-sphere (otherwise known as the Berger sphere), which lies at its conformal infinity. Using basic notions from conformal geometry and the theory of boundary value problems, in particular the Dirichlet-to-Robin operator, we establish that our two-point correlation function is conformally invariant and corresponds to a boundary operator of conformal dimension one. It is plausible that the methods we use could have more ge…
The anomalous rescaling for antisymmetric tensor fields, including gauge bosons, and Dirac fermions on Einstein spaces with boundary has been prone to errors and these are corrected here. The explicit calculations lead to some interesting identities that indicate a deeper underlying structure.
We consider the relation of mixed global gauge gravitational anomalies and boundary conformal field theory in WZW models for simple Lie groups. The discrete symmetries of consideration are the centers of the simple Lie groups. These mixed anomalies prevent to gauge them i.e, take the orbifold by the center. The absence of anomalies impose conditions on the levels of WZW models. Next, we study the conformal boundary conditions for the original theories. We consider the existence of a conformal boundary state invariant under the action of the center. This also gives conditions on the levels of W…
A self-duality group $\cal G$ in quantum field theory can have anomalies. In that case, the space of ordinary coupling constants $\cal M$ can be extended to include the space $\cal F$ of coefficients of counterterms in background fields. The extended space $\cal N$ forms a bundle over $\cal M$ with fiber $\cal F$, and the topology of the bundle is determined by the anomaly. For example, the ${\cal G}=SL(2,\mathbb{Z})$ duality of the 4d Maxwell theory has an anomaly, and the space ${\cal F}=S^1$ for the gravitational theta-angle is nontrivially fibered over ${\cal M}=\mathbb{H}/SL(2,\mathbb{Z})…
The emergence of conformal states is established for any problem involving a domain of scales where the long-range, SO(2,1) conformally invariant interaction is applicable. Whenever a clear-cut separation of ultraviolet and infrared cutoffs is in place, this renormalization mechanism produces binding in the strong-coupling regime. A realization of this phenomenon, in the form of dipole-bound anions, is discussed.
This paper presents two methods to compute scale anomaly coefficients in conformal field theories (CFTs), such as the c anomaly in four dimensions, in terms of the CFT data. We first use Euclidean position space to show that the anomaly coefficient of a four-point function can be computed in the form of an operator product expansion (OPE), namely a weighted sum of OPE coefficients squared. We compute the weights for scale anomalies associated with scalar operators and show that they are not positive. We then derive a different sum rule of the same form in Minkowski momentum space where the wei…
We formulate the conformal mapping between $R^3$ and $S^3$, the 3 sphere. This mapping is applied to the critical Ising model. From this mapping, we calculate the second and fourth moments of the magnetization density, and using those quantities calculate the 4th Binder cumulant. Our calculations for the critical 3D Ising Model on a 3 sphere are done using Mathematica's Monte Carlo Integration feature. The main motivation for performing this calculation is so we can later compare it to what the Quantum Elemental Method predicts.
We study a series of the Wess-Zumino actions obtained by repeatedly integrating conformal anomalies with respect to the conformal-factor field that appear at higher loops. We show that they arise as physical quantities required to make nonlocal loop correction terms diffeomorphism invariant. Specifically, in a conformally flat spacetime $ds^2=e^{2ϕ}(-dη^2 + d{\bf x}^2)$, we find that effective actions are described in terms of momentum squared expressed as a physical $Q^2 = q^2/e^{2ϕ}$ for $q^2$ measured by the flat metric, which recalls the relationship between physical momentum and comoving …
We study the occurrence of global gauge anomalies in the coset models of two-dimensional conformal field theory that are based on gauged WZW models. A complete classification of the non-anomalous theories for a wide family of gauged rigid adjoint or twisted-adjoint symmetries of WZW models is achieved with the help of Dynkin's classification of Lie subalgebras of simple Lie algebras.
Non-Abelian and Type-A Conformal Anomalies from Euler Descent
Racah Institute of Physics, Hebrew University of Jerusalem（雷哈物理学研究所，希伯来大学）；Department of Physics, LEPP, Cornell University（康奈尔大学物理系）；The Raymond and Beverly Sackler School of Physics and Astronomy, Tel Aviv University（特拉维夫大学雷蒙德和贝弗利萨克勒物理与天文学学院）
This paper is a sequel to arXiv:1309.0785 were we computed the Weyl anomaly a-coefficient on d-sphere for higher-derivative conformal higher spin field in d=4 and shown that it matches the expression found in arXiv:1306.5242 by a "holographic" method from a ratio of massless higher spin determinants in AdS_5. Here we repeat the same computation on 6-sphere and demonstrate that the result agrees again with the one following from AdS_7. We also discuss explicitly similar matching in the d=2 case.
We interpret Janus as an interface in a conformal field theory and study its properties. The Janus is created by an exactly marginal operator and we study its effect on the interface conformal field theory on the Janus. We do this by utilizing the AdS/CFT correspondence. We compute the interface free energy both from leading correction to the Euclidean action in the dual gravity description and from conformal perturbation theory in the conformal field theory. We find that the two results agree each other and that the interface free energy scales precisely as expected from the conformal invaria…
The AGT conjecture identifying conformal blocks with the Nekrasov functions is investigated for the spherical conformal blocks with more than 4 external legs. The diagram technique which arises in conformal block calculation involves propagators and vertices. We evaluated vertices with two Virasoro algebra descendants and explicitly checked the AGT relation up to the third order of the expansion for the 5-point and 6-point conformal blocks on sphere confirming all the predictions of arXiv:0906.3219 relevant in this situation. We propose that U(1)-factor can be extracted from the matrix element…
Two multiplicative anomalies are evaluated for the determinant of the conformal higher spin propagating operator on spheres given by Tseytlin. One holds for the decomposition of the higher derivative product into its individual second order factors and the other applies to its complete linear factorisation. Using this last factorisation, I also calculate the determinant explicitly in terms of the Riemann zeta function, for both even and odd dimensions. In the latter case there is no anomaly of course. The conformal anomaly is also found for arbitrary spin and dimension.
Various massive gravity theories in three dimensions are conjecturally dual to logarithmic conformal field theories (LCFTs). We summarise the status of these conjectures. LCFTs are characterised by the values of the central charges and the so-called "new anomalies". We employ a short-cut to calculate these new anomalies in generalised massive gravity and in the recently proposed higher-derivative gravity theories with holographic c-theorem. Both cases permit LCFTs exhibiting intriguing features, like rank three Jordan cells or non-zero central charges. Finally, as an example we discuss in some…
It was shown recently that boundary terms of conformal anomalies recover the universal contribution to the entanglement entropy and also play an important role in the boundary monotonicity theorem of odd-dimensional quantum field theories. Motivated by these results, we investigate relationships between boundary anomalies and the stress tensor correlation functions in conformal field theories. In particular, we focus on how the conformal Ward identity and the renormalization group equation are modified by boundary central charges. Renormalized stress tensors induced by boundary Weyl invariants…
Chiral, conformal and ghost number anomalies are discussed from the viewpoint of the quantum vacuum in Hamiltonian formalism. After introducing the energy cut-off, we derive known anomalies in a new way. We show that the physical origin of the anomalies is the zero point fluctuation of bosonic or fermionic field. We first point out that the chiral U(1) anomaly is understood as the creation of the chirality at the bottom of the regularized Dirac sea in classical electromagnetic field. In the study of the (1+1) dimensional quantum vacuum of matter field coupled to the gravity, we give a physical…
We investigate the superconformal transformation properties of Green functions with one or more insertions of the supercurrent in N=1 supersymmetric quantum field theories. These Green functions are conveniently obtained by coupling the supercurrent and its trace to a classical supergravity background. We derive flat space superconformal Ward identities from diffeomorphisms and Weyl transformations on curved superspace. For the classification of potential quantum superconformal anomalies in the massless Wess-Zumino model on curved superspace a perturbative approach is pursued, using the BPHZ s…
The trace anomaly for a conformally invariant scalar field theory on a curved manifold of positive constant curvature with boundary is considered. In the context of a perturbative evaluation of the theory's effective action explicit calculations are given for those contributions to the conformal anomaly which emerge as a result of free scalar propagation as well as from scalar self-interactions up to second order in the scalar self-coupling. The renormalisation-group behaviour of the theory is, subsequently, exploited in order to advance the evaluation of the conformal anomaly to third order i…
We study the free energy of four-dimensional CFTs on deformed spheres. For generic nonsupersymmetric CFTs only the coefficient of the logarithmic divergence in the free energy is physical, which is an extremum for the round sphere. We then specialize to $\mathcal{N}=2$ SCFTs where one can preserve some supersymmetry on a compact manifold by turning on appropriate background fields. For deformations of the round sphere the $c$ anomaly receives corrections proportional to the supersymmetric completion of the (Weyl)$^2$ term, which we determine up to one constant by analyzing the scale dependence…
