Modular Bootstrap Research Articles

Improving modular bootstrap bounds with integrality

We propose methods that efficiently impose integrality — i.e., the condition that the coefficients of characters in the partition function must be integers — into numerical modular bootstrap. We demonstrate the method with a number of examples where it can be used to strengthen modular bootstrap results. First, we show that, with a mild extra assumption, imposing integrality improves the bound on the maximal allowed gap in dimensions of operators in theories with a U(1)c symmetry at c = 3, and reduces it to the value saturated by the SU(4)1 WZW model point of c = 3 Narain lattices moduli space. Second, we show that our method can be used to eliminate all but a discrete set of points saturating the bound from previous Virasoro modular bootstrap results. Finally, when central charge is close to 1, we can slightly improve the upper bound on the scaling dimension gap.

Fusion category symmetry. Part II. Categoriosities at c = 1 and beyond

We study generalized symmetries of quantum field theories in 1+1D generated by topological defect lines with no inverse. This paper follows our companion paper on gapped phases and anomalies associated with these symmetries. In the present work we focus on identifying fusion category symmetries, using both specialized 1+1D methods such as the modular bootstrap and (rational) conformal field theory (CFT), as well as general methods based on gauging finite symmetries, that extend to all dimensions. We apply these methods to c = 1 CFTs and uncover a rich structure. We find that even those c = 1 CFTs with only finite group-like symmetries can have continuous fusion category symmetries, and prove a Noether theorem that relates such symmetries in general to non-local conserved currents. We also use these symmetries to derive new constraints on RG flows between 1+1D CFTs.

Sign uncertainty principles and low-degree polynomials

We prove an asymptotically sharp version of the Bourgain–Clozel–Kahane and Cohn–Gonçalves sign uncertainty principles for polynomials of sublinear degree times a Gaussian, as the dimension tends to infinity. In particular, we show that polynomials whose degree is sublinear in the dimension cannot improve asymptotically on those of degree at most three. This question arises naturally in the study of both linear programming bounds for sphere packing and the spinless modular bootstrap bound for free bosons.

Bosonic rational conformal field theories in small genera, chiral fermionization, and symmetry/subalgebra duality

A (1 + 1)D unitary bosonic rational conformal field theory (RCFT) may be organized according to its genus, a tuple (c,C) consisting of its central charge c and a unitary modular tensor category C which describes the (2 + 1)D topological quantum field theory for which its maximally extended chiral algebra forms a holomorphic boundary condition. We establish a number of results pertaining to RCFTs in “small” genera, by which we informally mean genera with the central charge c and the number of primary operators rank(C) both not too large. We start by completely solving the modular bootstrap problem for theories with at most four primary operators. In particular, we characterize, and provide an algorithm which efficiently computes, the function spaces to which the partition function of any bosonic RCFT with rank(C)≤4 must belong. Using this result, and leveraging relationships between RCFTs and holomorphic vertex operator algebras which come from “gluing” and cosets, we rigorously enumerate all bosonic theories in 95 of the 105 genera (c,C) with c ≤ 24 and rank(C)≤4. This includes as (new) special cases the classification of chiral algebras with three primaries and c < 120/7 ∼ 17.14, and the classification of chiral algebras with four primaries and c < 62/3 ∼ 20.67. We then study two applications of our classification. First, by making use of chiral versions of bosonization and fermionization, we obtain the complete list of purely left-moving fermionic RCFTs with c < 23 as a corollary of the results of the previous paragraph. Second, using a (conjectural) concept which we call “symmetry/subalgebra duality,” we precisely relate our bosonic classification to the problem of determining certain generalized global symmetries of holomorphic vertex operator algebras.

Twisted elliptic genera

We study the twisted elliptic genera of 2d (0, 4) SCFTs associated with the BPS strings in the twisted circle compactification of 6d rank-one (1, 0) SCFTs. Such objects can arise when the 6d gauge algebra allows outer automorphism, thus are classified by twisted affine Lie algebras. We study several fascinating aspects of the twisted elliptic genera including 2d localization, twisted elliptic blowup equations, Higgsing and spectral flow symmetry. We derive a recursion formula with respect to the number of strings to exactly compute the twisted elliptic genera. We also investigate the modular bootstrap of twisted one-string elliptic genera and find the modularity of congruence subgroups Γ1(N) naturally appears with possible N = 2, 3, 4. Geometrically, our study solves the refined BPS partition functions of the underlying genus-one fibered Calabi-Yau threefolds with N-section.

Correlation functions of huge operators in AdS3/CFT2: domes, doors and book pages

We describe solutions of asymptotically AdS3 Einstein gravity that are sourced by the insertion of operators in the boundary CFT2, whose dimension scales with the central charge of the theory. Previously, we found that the geometry corresponding to a black hole two-point function is simply related to an infinite covering of the Euclidean BTZ black hole [1]. However, here we find that the geometry sourced by the presence of a third black hole operator turns out to be a Euclidean wormhole with two asymptotic boundaries. We construct this new geometry as a quotient of empty AdS3 realized by domes and doors. The doors give access to the infinite covers that are needed to describe the insertion of the operators, while the domes describe the fundamental domains of the quotient on each cover. In particular, despite the standard fact that the Fefferman-Graham expansion is single-sided, the extended bulk geometry contains a wormhole that connects two asymptotic boundaries. We observe that the two-sided wormhole can be made single-sided by cutting off the wormhole and gluing on a “Lorentzian cap”. In this way, the geometry gives the holographic description of a three-point function, up to phases. By rewriting the metric in terms of a Liouville field, we compute the on-shell action and find that the result matches with the Heavy-Heavy-Heavy three-point function predicted by the modular bootstrap. Finally, we describe the geometric transition between doors and defects, that is, when one or more dual operators describe a conical defect insertion, rather than a black hole insertion.

The geometry of the modular bootstrap

We explore the geometry behind the modular bootstrap and its image in the space of Taylor coefficients of the torus partition function. In the first part, we identify the geometry as an intersection of planes with the convex hull of moment curves on R+⊗ℤ, with boundaries characterized by the total positivity of generalized Hankel matrices. We phrase the Hankel constraints as a semi-definite program, which has several advantages, such as the validity of bounds irrespective of spin truncation. We derive bounds on the gap, twist-gap, and the space of Taylor coefficients themselves. We find that if the gap is above ∆gap∗\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ {\\Delta }_{\ extrm{gap}}^{\\ast } $$\\end{document}, where c−112<Δgap∗<c12\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\frac{c-1}{12}<{\\Delta}_{\ extrm{gap}}^{\\ast }<\\frac{c}{12} $$\\end{document}, all coefficients become bounded on both sides and kinks develop in the space. In the second part, we propose an analytic method of imposing the integrality condition for the degeneracy number in the spinless bootstrap, which leads to a non-convex geometry. We find that even at very low derivative order this condition rules out regions otherwise allowed by bootstraps at high derivative order.

AdS3/RMT2 duality

We introduce a framework for quantifying random matrix behavior of 2d CFTs and AdS3 quantum gravity. We present a 2d CFT trace formula, precisely analogous to the Gutzwiller trace formula for chaotic quantum systems, which originates from the SL(2, ℤ) spectral decomposition of the Virasoro primary density of states. An analogy to Berry’s diagonal approximation allows us to extract spectral statistics of individual 2d CFTs by coarse-graining, and to identify signatures of chaos and random matrix universality. This leads to a necessary and sufficient condition for a 2d CFT to display a linear ramp in its coarse-grained spectral form factor.Turning to gravity, AdS3 torus wormholes are cleanly interpreted as diagonal projections of squared partition functions of microscopic 2d CFTs. The projection makes use of Hecke operators. The Cotler-Jensen wormhole of AdS3 pure gravity is shown to be extremal among wormhole amplitudes: it is the minimal completion of the random matrix theory correlator compatible with Virasoro symmetry and SL(2, ℤ)-invariance. We call this MaxRMT: the maximal realization of random matrix universality consistent with the necessary symmetries. Completeness of the SL(2, ℤ) spectral decomposition as a trace formula allows us to factorize the Cotler-Jensen wormhole, extracting the microscopic object ZRMT(τ) from the coarse-grained product. This captures details of the spectrum of BTZ black hole microstates. ZRMT(τ) may be interpreted as an AdS3 half-wormhole. We discuss its implications for the dual CFT and modular bootstrap at large central charge.

Averaging over codes and an SU(2) modular bootstrap

Error-correcting codes are known to define chiral 2d lattice CFTs where all the U(1) symmetries are enhanced to SU(2). In this paper, we extend this construction to a broader class of length-n codes which define full (non-chiral) CFTs with SU(2)n symmetry, where n = c + overline{c} . We show that codes give a natural discrete ensemble of 2d theories in which one can compute averaged observables. The partition functions obtained from averaging over all codes weighted equally is found to be given by the sum over modular images of the vacuum character of the full extended symmetry group, and in this case the number of modular images is finite. This averaged partition function has a large gap, scaling linearly with n, in primaries of the full SU(2)n symmetry group. Using the sum over modular images, we conjecture the form of the genus-2 partition function. This exhibits the connected contributions to disconnected boundaries characteristic of wormhole solutions in a bulk dual.

Fake Z

Recently introduced connections between quantum codes and Narain CFTs provide a simple ansatz to express a modular-invariant function Zleft(tau, overline{tau}right) in terms of a multivariate polynomial satisfying certain additional properties. These properties include algebraic identities, which ensure modular invariance of Zleft(tau, overline{tau}right) , and positivity and integrality of coefficients, which imply positivity and integrality of the \U0001d532(1)n × \U0001d532(1)n character expansion of Zleft(tau, overline{tau}right) . Such polynomials come naturally from codes, in the sense that each code of a certain type gives rise to the so-called enumerator polynomial, which automatically satisfies all necessary properties, while the resulting Zleft(tau, overline{tau}right) is the partition function of the code CFT — the Narain theory unambiguously constructed from the code. Yet there are also “fake” polynomials satisfying all necessary properties, that are not associated with any code. They lead to Zleft(tau, overline{tau}right) satisfying all modular bootstrap constraints (modular invariance and positivity and integrality of character expansion), but whether they are partition functions of any actual CFT is unclear. We consider the group of the six simplest fake polynomials and denounce the corresponding Z’s as fake: we show that none of them is the torus partition function of any Narain theory. Moreover, four of them are not partition functions of any unitary 2d CFT; our analysis for other two is inconclusive. Our findings point to an obvious limitation of the modular bootstrap approach: not every solution of the full set of torus modular bootstrap constraints is due to an actual CFT. In the paper we consider six simple examples, keeping in mind that thousands more can be constructed.

Bootstrapping Lieb-Schultz-Mattis anomalies

We incorporate the microscopic assumptions that lead to a certain generalization of the Lieb-Schultz-Mattis (LSM) theorem for one-dimensional spin chains into the conformal bootstrap. Our approach accounts for the ``LSM anomaly'' possessed by these spin chains through a combination of modular bootstrap and correlator bootstrap of symmetry defect operators. Specifically, we obtain universal bounds on the local operator content of $(1+1)d$ conformal field theories (CFTs) that could describe translationally invariant lattice Hamiltonians with a ${\mathbb{Z}}_{N}\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{\mathbb{Z}}_{N}$ symmetry realized projectively at each site. We assume, for such models, that in the CFT the lattice translation symmetry is realized as an emanant internal ${\mathbb{Z}}_{N}$ symmetry. We present bounds on local operators both with and without refinement by their global symmetry representations. Interestingly, we can obtain nontrivial bounds on charged operators when $N$ is odd, which turns out to be impossible with modular bootstrap alone. Our bounds exhibit distinctive kinks, some of which are approximately saturated by known theories and others that are unexplained. We discuss additional scenarios with the properties necessary for our bounds to apply, including certain multicritical points between $(1+1)d$ symmetry protected topological phases, where we argue that the anomaly studied in our bootstrap calculations should emerge.

Spin-Cobordisms, Surgeries and Fermionic Modular Bootstrap

Spin-Cobordisms, Surgeries and Fermionic Modular Bootstrap

Narain CFTs and quantum codes at higher genus

Code CFTs are 2d conformal field theories defined by error-correcting codes. Recently, Dymarsky and Shapere generalized the construction of code CFTs to include quantum error-correcting codes. In this paper, we explore this connection at higher genus. We prove that the higher-genus partition functions take the form of polynomials of higher-weight theta functions, and that the higher-genus modular group acts as simple linear transformations on these polynomials. We explain how to solve the modular constraints explicitly, which we do for genus 2. The result is that modular invariance at genus 1 and genus 2 is much more constraining than genus 1 alone. This allows us to drastically reduce the space of possible code CFTs. We also consider a number of examples of “isospectral theories” — CFTs with the same genus 1 partition function — and we find that they have different genus 2 partition functions. Finally, we make connection to some 2d CFTs known from the modular bootstrap. The n = 4 theory conjectured to have the largest possible gap in Virasoro characters, the SO(8) WZW model, is a code CFT, allowing us to give an expression for its genus 2 partition function. We also find some other known CFTs which are not code theories but whose partition functions satisfy the same simple polynomial ansatz as the code theories. This leads us to speculate about the usefulness of the code polynomial form beyond the study of code CFTs.

On classification of fermionic rational conformal field theories

We systematically study how the integrality of the conformal characters shapes the space of fermionic rational conformal field theories in two dimensions. The integrality suggests that conformal characters on torus with a given choice of spin structures should be invariant under a principal congruence subgroup of PSL(2, ℤ). The invariance strongly constrains the possible values of the central charge as well as the conformal weights in both Neveu-Schwarz and Ramond sectors, which improves the conventional holomorphic modular bootstrap method in a significant manner. This allows us to make much progress on the classification of fermionic rational conformal field theories with the number of independent characters less than five.

Bootstrapping boundaries and branes

The study of conformal boundary conditions for two-dimensional conformal field theories (CFTs) has a long history, ranging from the description of impurities in one-dimensional quantum chains to the formulation of D-branes in string theory. Nevertheless, the landscape of conformal boundaries is largely unknown, including in rational CFTs, where the local operator data is completely determined. We initiate a systematic bootstrap study of conformal boundaries in 2d CFTs by investigating the bootstrap equation that arises from the open-closed consistency condition of the annulus partition function with identical boundaries. We find that this deceivingly simple bootstrap equation, when combined with unitarity, leads to surprisingly strong constraints on admissible boundary states. In particular, we derive universal bounds on the tension (boundary entropy) of stable boundary conditions, which provide a rigorous diagnostic for potential D-brane decays. We also find unique solutions to the bootstrap problem of stable branes in a number of rational CFTs. Along the way, we observe a curious connection between the annulus bootstrap and the sphere packing problem, which is a natural extension of previous work on the modular bootstrap. We also derive bounds on the boundary entropy at large central charge. These potentially have implications for end-of-the-world branes in pure gravity on AdS3.

Modular bootstrap for D4-D2-D0 indices on compact Calabi–Yau threefolds

Modular bootstrap for D4-D2-D0 indices on compact Calabi–Yau threefolds

Optimal Narain CFTs from codes

Recently established connection between additive codes and Narain CFTs provides a new tool to construct theories with special properties and solve modular bootstrap constraints by reducing them to algebraic identities. We generalize previous constructions to include many new theories, in particular we show that all known optimal Narain theories, i.e. those maximizing the value of spectral gap, can be constructed from codes. For asymptotically large central charge c we show there are code theories with the spectral gap growing linearly with c, with the coefficient saturating the conjectural upper bound. We therefore conjecture that optimal Narain theories for any value of c can be obtained from codes.

Hecke relations, cosets and the classification of 2d RCFTs

We systemically study the Hecke relations and the c = 8k coset relations among 2d rational conformal field theories (RCFTs) with up to seven characters. We propose that the characters of any 2d RCFT — unitary or non-unitary — satisfying a holomorphic modular linear differential equation (MLDE) can be realized as either a Hecke image or the coset of a Hecke image with respect to a c = 8k theory. Benefited from the recent results on holomorphic modular bootstrap, we check this proposal for all admissible theories with up to five characters. We also find many new interesting Hecke relations. For example, the characters of WZW models (E6)2, (E7)2, ( {E}_{7frac{1}{2}} )2 can be realized as the Hecke images T13, T19, T19 of Virasoro minimal models Msub(7, 6), M(5, 4), Meff(13, 2) respectively. Besides, we find the characters associated to the second largest Fisher group Fi23 and the Harada-Norton group HN can be realized as the Hecke images T23, T19 of the product theories Meff(5, 2) ⊗ Meff(7, 2) and Meff(7, 2)⊗2 respectively. Mathematically, our study provides a great many interesting examples of vector-valued modular functions up to rank seven.

Holomorphic modular bootstrap revisited

In this work we revisit the “holomorphic modular bootstrap”, i.e. the classification of rational conformal field theories via an analysis of the modular differential equations satisfied by their characters. By making use of the representation theory of PSL(2, ℤn), we describe a method to classify allowed central charges and weights (c, hi) for theories with any number of characters d. This allows us to avoid various bottlenecks encountered previously in the literature, and leads to a classification of consistent characters up to d = 5 whose modular differential equations are uniquely fixed in terms of (c, hi). In the process, we identify the full set of constraints on the allowed values of the Wronskian index for fixed d ≤ 5.

Non-rational Narain CFTs from codes over F4

We construct a map between a class of codes over F4 and a family of non-rational Narain CFTs. This construction is complementary to a recently introduced relation between quantum stabilizer codes and a class of rational Narain theories. From the modular bootstrap point of view we formulate a polynomial ansatz for the partition function which reduces modular invariance to a handful of algebraic easy-to-solve constraints. For certain small values of central charge our construction yields optimal theories, i.e. those with the largest value of the spectral gap.