Litcius/Paper detail

Convergent momentum-space OPE and bootstrap equations in conformal field theory

Marc Gillioz, Xiaochuan Lu, Markus A. Luty, Guram Mikaberidze

2020Journal of High Energy Physics25 citationsDOIOpen Access PDF

Abstract

A bstract General principles of quantum field theory imply that there exists an operator product expansion (OPE) for Wightman functions in Minkowski momentum space that converges for arbitrary kinematics. This convergence is guaranteed to hold in the sense of a distribution, meaning that it holds for correlation functions smeared by smooth test functions. The conformal blocks for this OPE are conceptually extremely simple: they are products of 3-point functions. We construct the conformal blocks in 2-dimensional conformal field theory and show that the OPE in fact converges pointwise to an ordinary function in a specific kinematic region. Using microcausality, we also formulate a bootstrap equation directly in terms of momentum space Wightman functions.

Topics & Concepts

Operator product expansionPhysicsConformal field theoryMathematical physicsMinkowski spaceConformal mapQuantum field theoryPosition and momentum spacePrimary fieldConformal symmetryConformal anomalyProduct (mathematics)Correlation function (quantum field theory)Field (mathematics)Operator (biology)Momentum (technical analysis)Space (punctuation)Scalar field theoryScalar (mathematics)Boundary conformal field theoryPointwiseFunction (biology)Theoretical physicsYang–Mills theoryScalar fieldQuantum electrodynamicsQuantum mechanicsRenormalizationField theory (psychology)Quantum Chromodynamics and Particle InteractionsParticle physics theoretical and experimental studiesSpectral Theory in Mathematical Physics