Boundaries in Free Higher Derivative Conformal Field Theories

Adam Chalabi; Christopher P. Herzog; Krishnendu Ray; Brandon Robinson; Jacopo Sisti; Andreas Stergiou

doi:10.1007/JHEP04(2023)098

Boundaries in Free Higher Derivative Conformal Field Theories

Adam Chalabi, Christopher P. Herzog, Krishnendu Ray, Brandon Robinson, Jacopo Sisti, Andreas Stergiou

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Abstract

We consider free higher derivative theories of scalars and Dirac fermions in the presence of a boundary in general dimension. We establish a method for finding consistent conformal boundary conditions in these theories by removing certain boundary primaries from the spectrum. A rich set of renormalization group flows between various conformal boundary conditions is revealed, triggered by deformations quadratic in the boundary primaries. We compute the free energy of these theories on a hemisphere, and show that the boundary a-theorem is generally violated along boundary flows as a consequence of bulk non-unitarity. We further characterize the boundary theory by computing the two-point function of the displacement operator.

Original language	English
Number of pages	49
Journal	Journal of High Energy Physics
Volume	2023
Issue number	4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP04(2023)098 https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2211.14335
Publication status	Published - 21 Apr 2023

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hep-th

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10.1007/JHEP04(2023)098
10.48550/arXiv.2211.14335Licence: CC BY

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title = "Boundaries in Free Higher Derivative Conformal Field Theories",

abstract = "We consider free higher derivative theories of scalars and Dirac fermions in the presence of a boundary in general dimension. We establish a method for finding consistent conformal boundary conditions in these theories by removing certain boundary primaries from the spectrum. A rich set of renormalization group flows between various conformal boundary conditions is revealed, triggered by deformations quadratic in the boundary primaries. We compute the free energy of these theories on a hemisphere, and show that the boundary a-theorem is generally violated along boundary flows as a consequence of bulk non-unitarity. We further characterize the boundary theory by computing the two-point function of the displacement operator.",

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AU - Chalabi, Adam

AU - Herzog, Christopher P.

AU - Ray, Krishnendu

AU - Robinson, Brandon

AU - Sisti, Jacopo

AU - Stergiou, Andreas

PY - 2023/4/21

Y1 - 2023/4/21

N2 - We consider free higher derivative theories of scalars and Dirac fermions in the presence of a boundary in general dimension. We establish a method for finding consistent conformal boundary conditions in these theories by removing certain boundary primaries from the spectrum. A rich set of renormalization group flows between various conformal boundary conditions is revealed, triggered by deformations quadratic in the boundary primaries. We compute the free energy of these theories on a hemisphere, and show that the boundary a-theorem is generally violated along boundary flows as a consequence of bulk non-unitarity. We further characterize the boundary theory by computing the two-point function of the displacement operator.

AB - We consider free higher derivative theories of scalars and Dirac fermions in the presence of a boundary in general dimension. We establish a method for finding consistent conformal boundary conditions in these theories by removing certain boundary primaries from the spectrum. A rich set of renormalization group flows between various conformal boundary conditions is revealed, triggered by deformations quadratic in the boundary primaries. We compute the free energy of these theories on a hemisphere, and show that the boundary a-theorem is generally violated along boundary flows as a consequence of bulk non-unitarity. We further characterize the boundary theory by computing the two-point function of the displacement operator.

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VL - 2023

JO - Journal of High Energy Physics

JF - Journal of High Energy Physics

IS - 4

ER -

Boundaries in Free Higher Derivative Conformal Field Theories

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