Exact correlators from conformal Ward identities in momentum space and the perturbative TJJ vertex

Abstract

We present a general study of 3-point functions of conformal field theory in momentum space, following a reconstruction method for tensor correlators, based on the solution of the conformal Ward identities (CWI's), introduced in recent works by Bzowski, McFadden and Skenderis (BMS). We investigate and detail the structure of the CWI's, their non-perturbative solutions and the transition to momentum space, comparing them to perturbation theory by taking QED as an example. We then proceed with an analysis of the TJJ correlator, presenting independent and detailed re-derivations of the conformal equations in the reconstruction method of BMS, originally formulated using a minimal tensor basis in the transverse traceless sector. A careful comparison with a second basis introduced in previous studies shows that this correlator is affected by one anomaly pole in the graviton (T) line, induced by renormalization. The result shows that the origin of the anomaly, in this correlator, should be necessarily attributed to the exchange of a massless effective degree of freedom. Our results are then exemplified in massless QED at one-loop in d-dimensions, expressed in terms of perturbative master integrals. An independent analysis of the Fuchsian character of the solutions, which bypasses the 3K integrals, is also presented. We show that the combination of field theories at one-loop – with a specific field content of degenerate massless scalar and fermions – is sufficient to generate the complete non-perturbative solution, in agreement with a previous study in coordinate space. The result shows that free conformal field theories, in specific dimensions, arrested at one-loop, reproduce the general result for the TJJ. Analytical checks of this correspondence are presented in d=3,4 and 5 spacetime dimensions. This implies that the generalized 3K integrals of the BMS solution can be expressed in terms of the two single master integrals B0 and C0 of 2- and 3-point functions, with significant simplifications.