UV Asymptotics Research Articles

Higher-Spin Currents, Operator Mixing and UV Asymptotics in Large-N QCD-like Theories

We extend to operator mixing—specifically, to higher-spin twist-2 operators—the asymptotic theorem on the ultraviolet asymptotics of the spectral representation of 2-point correlators of multiplicatively renormalizable operators in large-N confining QCD-like theories. The extension is based on a recent differential geometric approach to operator mixing that involves the Poincaré-Dulac theorem and allows us to reduce generically the operator mixing to the multiplicatively renormalizable case, provided that γ0β0 is diagonalizable and a certain nonresonant condition for its eigenvalues holds according to the Poincaré-Dulac theorem, with γ0 and β0 the one-loop coefficients of the anomalous dimension matrix and beta function respectively. Relatedly, we solve a conundrum about the generic nonconservation of higher-spin currents versus the conservation—up to contact terms—of the corresponding free propagators in the spectral representation of 2-point correlators of higher-spin operators of pure integer spin to the leading large-N order.

Celestial amplitudes from UV to IR

Celestial amplitudes represent 4D scattering of particles in boost, rather than the usual energy-momentum, eigenstates and hence are sensitive to both UV and IR physics. We show that known UV and IR properties of quantum gravity translate into powerful constraints on the analytic structure of celestial amplitudes. For example the soft UV behavior of quantum gravity is shown to imply that the exact four-particle scattering amplitude is meromorphic in the complex boost weight plane with poles confined to even integers on the negative real axis. Would-be poles on the positive real axis from UV asymptotics are shown to be erased by a flat space analog of the AdS resolution of the bulk point singularity. The residues of the poles on the negative axis are identified with operator coefficients in the IR effective action. Far along the real positive axis, the scattering is argued to grow exponentially according to the black hole area law. Exclusive amplitudes are shown to simply factorize into conformally hard and conformally soft factors. The soft factor contains all IR divergences and is given by a celestial current algebra correlator of Goldstone bosons from spontaneously broken asymptotic symmetries. The hard factor describes the scattering of hard particles together with the boost-eigenstate clouds of soft photons or gravitons required by asymptotic symmetries. These provide an IR safe mathcal{S} -matrix for the scattering of hard particles.

Non-SUSY fractional branes

We consider a simplified Ansatz for supergravity solutions describing fractional p-brane solutions (throat geometries supported by fluxes) for various p. For p = 3 the Ansatz captures the Klebanov-Tseytlin (KT) solution. The equations of motion can be derived from an effective action by performing a dimensional reduction to a flat domain wall geometry in p + 2 dimensions. We find an interesting deformation of the known superpotential defining the SUSY domain wall flow. The deformation parameter breaks supersymmetry but still preserves the property that a test Dp brane feels no force inside the throat. The new solutions come in two classes. Both classes have the same UV asymptotics as the KT solution and one class has also similar IR behavior, which makes them potentially interesting holographic backgrounds for studying cascading gauge theories with broken SUSY. We explain furthermore how the curved domain wall solutions of the same (p + 2)-dimensional theories are expected to lift to new AdS compactifications of type IIA/B supergravity.

Holographic metals and insulators with helical symmetry

Homogeneous, zero temperature scaling solutions with Bianchi VII spatial geometry are constructed in Einstein-Maxwell-Dilaton theory. They correspond to quantum critical saddle points with helical symmetry at finite density. Assuming $AdS_{5}$ UV asymptotics, the small frequency/(temperature) dependence of the AC/(DC) electric conductivity along the director of the helix are computed. A large class of insulating and conducting anisotropic phases is found, as well as isotropic, metallic phases. Conduction can be dominated by dissipation due to weak breaking of translation symmetry or by a quantum critical current.

Holography and conformal anomaly matching

We discuss various issues related to the understanding of the conformal anomaly matching in CFT from the dual holographic viewpoint. First, we act with a PBH diffeomorphism on a generic 5D RG flow geometry and show that the corresponding on-shell bulk action reproduces the Wess-Zumino term for the dilaton of broken conformal symmetry, with the expected coefficient aUV-aIR. Then we consider a specific 3D example of RG flow whose UV asymptotics is normalizable and admits a 6D lifting. We promote a modulus \rho appearing in the geometry to a function of boundary coordinates. In a 6D description {\rho} is the scale of an SU(2) instanton. We determine the smooth deformed background up to second order in the space-time derivatives of \rho and find that the 3D on-shell action reproduces a boundary kinetic term for the massless field \tau= log(\rho) with the correct coefficient \delta c=cUV-cIR. We further analyze the linearized fluctuations around the deformed background geometry and compute the one-point functions <T\mu\nu> and show that they are reproduced by a Liouville-type action for the massless scalar \tau, with background charge due to the coupling to the 2D curvature R. The resulting central charge matches \delta c. We give an interpretation of this action in terms of the (4,0) SCFT of the D1-D5 system in type I theory.

The a-theorem and the asymptotics of 4D quantum field theory

We study the possible IR and UV asymptotics of 4D Lorentz invariant unitary quantum field theory. Our main tool is a generalization of the Komargodski-Schwimmer proof for the $a$-theorem. We use this to rule out a large class of renormalization group flows that do not asymptote to conformal field theories in the UV and IR. We show that if the IR (UV) asymptotics is described by perturbation theory, all beta functions must vanish faster than $(1/|\ln\mu|)^{1/2}$ as $\mu \to 0$ ($\mu \to \infty$). This implies that the only possible asymptotics within perturbation theory is conformal field theory. In particular, it rules out perturbative theories with scale but not conformal invariance, which are equivalent to theories with renormalization group pseudocycles. Our arguments hold even for theories with gravitational anomalies. We also give a non-perturbative argument that excludes theories with scale but not conformal invariance. This argument holds for theories in which the stress-energy tensor is sufficiently nontrivial in a technical sense that we make precise.

Reflection amplitudes in non-simply laced Toda theories and thermodynamic Bethe ansatz

We study the ultraviolet asymptotics in non-simply laced affine Toda theories considering them as perturbed non-affine Toda theories, which possess the extended conformal symmetry. We calculate the reflection amplitudes, in non-affine Toda theories and use them to derive the quantization condition for the vacuum wave function, describing zero-mode dynamics. The solution of this quantization conditions for the ground state energy determines the UV asymptotics of the effective central charge. These asymptotics are in a good agreement with Thermodynamic Bethe Ansatz (TBA) results. To make the comparison with TBA possible, we give the exact relations between parameters of the action and masses of particles as well as the bulk free energies for non-simply laced affine Toda theories.

Reflection amplitudes of ADE Toda theories and thermodynamic Bethe ansatz

We study the ultraviolet asymptotics in affine Toda theories. These models are considered as perturbed non-affine Toda theories. We calculate the reflection amplitudes, which relate different exponential fields with the same quantum numbers. Using these amplitudes we derive the quantization condition for the vacuum wave function, describing zero-mode dynamics, and calculate the UV asymptotics of the effective central charge. These asymptotics are in a good agreement with thermodynamic Bethe ansatz results.