Non-compact Conformal Field Theories (CFTs) are central to several aspects of string theory and condensed matter physics. They are characterised, in particular, by the appearance of a continuum of conformal dimensions. Surprisingly, such CFTs have been identified as the continuum limits of lattice models with a finite number of degrees of freedom per site. However, results have so far been restricted to the case of periodic boundary conditions, precluding the exploration via lattice models of aspects of non-compact boundary CFTs and the corresponding D-brane constructions. The present paper follows a series of previous works on a $\mathbb{Z}_2$-staggered XXZ spin chain, whose continuum limit is known to be a non-compact CFT related with the Euclidian black hole sigma model. By using the relationship of this spin chain with an integrable $D_2^2$ vertex model, we here identify integrable boundary conditions that lead to a continuous spectrum of boundary exponents, and thus correspond to non-compact branes. In the context of the Potts model on a square lattice, they correspond to wired boundary conditions at the physical antiferromagnetic critical point. The relations with the boundary parafermion theories are discussed as well. We are also able to identify a boundary renormalisation group flow from the non-compact boundary conditions to the previously studied compact ones.
Heat-kernel expansion and zeta function regularisation are discussed for Laplace type operators with discrete spectrum in non compact domains. Since a general theory is lacking, the heat-kernel expansion is investigated by means of several examples. It is pointed out that for a class of exponential (analytic) interactions, generically the non-compactness of the domain gives rise to logarithmic terms in the heat-kernel expansion. Then, a meromorphic continuation of the associated zeta function is investigated. A simple model is considered, for which the analytic continuation of the zeta functio…
Motivated by the study of quantum fields in a Friedman-Robertson-Walker (FRW) spacetime, the one-loop effective action for a scalar field defined in the ultrastatic manifold $R\times H^3/Γ$, $H^3/Γ$ being the finite volume, non-compact, hyperbolic spatial section, is investigated by a generalisation of zeta-function regularisation. It is shown that additional divergences may appear at one-loop level. The one-loop renormalisability of the model is discussed and making use of a generalisation of zeta-function regularisation, the one-loop renormalisation group equations are derived.
We show how the Weyl anomaly generated by gauge fields, can be computed from manifestly gauge invariant and diffeomorphism invariant exact renormalization group equations, without having to fix the gauge at any stage. Regularisation is provided by covariant higher derivatives and by embedding the Maxwell field into a spontaneously broken $U(1|1)$ supergauge theory. We first provide a realisation that leaves behind two versions of the original $U(1)$ gauge field, and then construct a manifestly $U(1|1)$ supergauge invariant flow equation which leaves behind only the original Maxwell field in th…
Given a 4d N=2 SUSY gauge theory, one can construct the Seiberg-Witten prepotentional, which involves a sum over instantons. Integrals over instanton moduli spaces require regularisation. For UV-finite theories the AGT conjecture favours particular, Nekrasov's way of regularization. It implies that Nekrasov's partition function equals conformal blocks in 2d theories with W_{N_c} chiral algebra. For $N_c=2$ and one adjoint multiplet it coincides with a torus 1-point Virasoro conformal block. We check the AGT relation between conformal dimension and adjoint multiplet's mass in this case and inve…
We construct the three point function involving an axial vector current and two energy-momentum tensors for four dimensional conformal field theories. Conformal symmetry determines the form of this three point function uniquely up to a constant factor if the necessary conservation conditions are imposed. The gravitational axial anomaly present on a curved space background leads to a non-zero contribution for the divergence of the axial current in this three point function even on flat space. Using techniques related to differential regularisation which guarantee that the energy-momentum tensor…
A dimensional interpolation between the free energy and conformal anomaly on spheres is derived for free scalar and spinor fields on the basis of standard field theory. The regularisation used is an extension of one by Candelas and Weinberg. It yields a (known) simple integral which is shown to be identical to the interpolations introduced by Giombi and Klebanov using earlier AdS/CFT results. The extension to GJMS--type higher derivatives is made with a hint of a possible, kinematic resolution of the non--minimal Type-B mismatch being presented. Another form of the sphere conformal anomaly is …
We analyse with the algebraic, regularisation independent, cohomological B.R.S. methods, the renormalisability of torsionless N=2 supersymmetric non-linear sigma models built on Kahler spaces. Surprisingly enough with respect to the common wisdom, we obtain an anomaly candidate, at least in the compact Ricci-flat case. In the compact homogeneous Kahler case, as expected, the anomaly candidate disappears.
We study the continuum limit of the entanglement hamiltonians of a block of consecutive sites in massless harmonic chains. This block is either in the chain on the infinite line or at the beginning of a chain on the semi-infinite line with Dirichlet boundary conditions imposed at its origin. The entanglement hamiltonians of the interval predicted by Conformal Field Theory for the massless scalar field are obtained in the continuum limit. We also study the corresponding entanglement spectra and the numerical results for the ratios of the gaps are compatible with the operator content of the Boun…
We analyse with the algebraic, regularisation independent, cohomological B.R.S. methods, the renormalisability of torsionless N=2 supersymmetric non-linear $\si$ models built on compact Kähler spaces. Surprisingly enough with respect to the common wisdom, we obtain an anomaly candidate, when the Hodge number $h^{3,0}$ of the target space manifold is different from zero : this occurs in particular in the Calabi-Yau case. On the contrary, in the compact homogeneous Kähler case, the anomaly candidate disappears.
We propose a spectrum for a class of gauged non-compact G/Ad(H) WZNW models, including spectrally flowed images of highest, lowest, and mixed extremal weight modules. These are combined into blocks whose characters, due to the Lorentzian signature of the target space, are divergent and treated as formal expressions in need of regularisation. Assuming that this is possible, we show that these extended characters transform linearly under modular transformations, and can be used to write down modular invariant partition functions.
This article describes some geometric invariants and conformal anomalies for conformally compact Einstein manifolds and their minimal submanifolds which have recently been discovered via the Anti-de Sitter/Conformal Field Theory correspondence.
We show that C^2 conformally compact Riemannian Einstein metrics have conformal compactifications that are smooth up to the boundary in dimension 3 and all even dimensions, and polyhomogeneous in odd dimensions greater than 3.
We show that there are many compact subsets of the moduli space $M_g$ of Riemann surfaces of genus $g$ that do not intersect any symmetry locus. This has interesting implications for $\mathcal{N}=2$ supersymmetric conformal field theories in four dimensions.
The requirements of conformal invariance for two and three point functions for general dimension $d$ on flat space are investigated. A compact group theoretic construction of the three point function for arbitrary spin fields is presented and it is applied to various cases involving conserved vector operators and the energy momentum tensor. The restrictions arising from the associated conservation equations are investigated. It is shown that there are, for general $d$, three linearly independent conformal invariant forms for the three point function of the energy momentum tensor, although for …
In this note we begin a systematic study of compact conformal manifolds of SCFTs in four dimensions (our notion of compactness is with respect to the topology induced by the Zamolodchikov metric). Supersymmetry guarantees that such manifolds are Kahler, and so the simplest possible non-trivial compact conformal manifold in this set of geometries is a complex one-dimensional projective space. We show that such a manifold is indeed realized and give a general prescription for constructing complex N-dimensional projective space conformal manifolds as certain small N=2->N=1 breaking deformations o…
We study the gravitational action induced by coupling two-dimensional non-conformal, massive matter to gravity on a compact Riemann surface. We express this gravitational action in terms of finite and well-defined quantities for any value of the mass. A small-mass expansion gives back the Liouville action in the massless limit, the Mabuchi and Aubin-Yau actions to first order, as well as an infinite series of higher-order contributions written in terms of purely geometric quantities.
We discuss non-compact WZW sigma models, especially the ones with symmetric space $H^{\bf C}/H$ as the target, for $H$ a compact Lie group. They offer examples of non-rational conformal field theories. We remind their relation to the compact WZW models but stress their distinctive features like the continuous spectrum of conformal weights, diverging partition functions and the presence of two types of operators analogous to the local and non-local insertions recently discussed in the Liouville theory. Gauging non-compact abelian subgroups of $H^{\bf C}$ leads to non-rational coset theories. In…
We study the conformal field theory dual of the type IIA flux compactification model of DeWolfe, Giryavets, Kachru and Taylor, with all moduli stabilized. We find its central charge and properties of its operator spectrum. We concentrate on the moduli space of the conformal field theory, which we investigate through domain walls in the type IIA string theory. The moduli space turns out to consist of many different branches. We use Bezout's theorem and Bernstein's theorem to enumerate the different branches of the moduli space and estimate their dimension.
We study holographic conformal order compactified on $S^3$. The corresponding boundary CFT$ _4$ has a thermal phase with a nonzero expectation value of a certain operator. The gravitational dual to the ordered phase is represented by a black hole in asymptotically $AdS_5$ that violates the no-hair theorem. While the compactification does not destroy the ordered phase, it does not cure its perturbative instability: we identify the scalar channel QNM of the hairy black hole with Im$[w]>0$. On the contrary, we argue that the disordered thermal phase of the boundary CFT is perturbatively stable in…
We show that equivariant Donaldson polynomials of compact toric surfaces can be calculated as residues of suitable combinations of Virasoro conformal blocks, by building on AGT correspondence between N = 2 supersymmetric gauge theories and two-dimensional conformal field theory.
We study compactifications of $6d$ non minimal $(D_{p+3},D_{p+3})$ type conformal matter. These can be described by $N$ M5-branes probing a $D_{p+3}$-type singularity. We derive $4d$ Lagrangians corresponding to compactifications of such $6d$ SCFTs on three punctured spheres (trinions) with two maximal punctures and one minimal puncture. The trinion models are described by simple $\mathcal{N}=1$ quivers with $SU(2N)$ gauge nodes. We derive the trinion Lagrangians using RG flows between the aforementioned $6d$ SCFTs with different values of $p$ and their relations to matching RG flows in their …
A scalar charged particle moving in a curved background spacetime will emit a field affecting its own motion; the resolving of this resulting motion is often referred to as the self-force problem. This also serves as a toy model for the astrophysically interesting compact body binaries, extreme mass ratio inspirals, targets for the future space-based gravitational wave detector, LISA. In the modelling of such systems, a point-particle assumption leads to problematic singularities which need to be safely removed to solve for the motion of the particle regardless of the scenario: scalar, electro…
On conformally compact manifolds of arbitrary signature, we use conformal geometry to identify a natural (and very general) class of canonical boundary problems. It turns out that these encompass and extend aspects of already known holographic bulk-boundary problems, the conformal scattering description of boundary conformal invariants, and corresponding questions surrounding a range of physical bulk wave equations. These problems are then simultaneously solved asymptotically to all orders by a single universal calculus of operators that yields what may be described as a solution generating al…
