The analytic structure of conformal blocks and the generalized Wilson-Fisher fixed points

• Published in: The journal of high energy physics Vol. 2017; no. 4; pp. 1 - 36
• Main Authors: Gliozzi, Ferdinando, Guerrieri, Andrea L., Petkou, Anastasios C., Wen, Congkao
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01-04-2017; Springer Nature B.V; Springer Berlin; SpringerOpen
• Subjects: Classical and Quantum Gravitation; Conformal Field Theory; Critical point; Deformation mechanisms; Elementary Particles; Equivalence; Exchange; High energy physics; Higher Spin Symmetry; Mathematical analysis; Mathematical models; Operators; Phase transitions; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS; Quantum Field Theories; Quantum Field Theory; Quantum Physics; Regular Article - Theoretical Physics; Relativity Theory; Scalars; String Theory; Symmetry; Theoretical physics; Conformal Field Theory; Higher Spin Symmetry
• ISSN: 1029-8479; 1029-8479
• DOI: 10.1007/JHEP04(2017)056

A
bstract
We describe in detail the method used in our previous work
arXiv:1611.10344
to study the Wilson-Fisher critical points nearby generalized free CFTs, exploiting the analytic structure of conformal blocks as functions of the conformal dimension of the exchanged operator. Our method is equivalent to the mechanism of conformal multiplet recombination set up by null states. We compute, to the first non-trivial order in the ϵ-expansion, the anomalous dimensions and the OPE coefficients of infinite classes of scalar local operators using just CFT data. We study single-scalar and
O
(
N
)-invariant theories, as well as theories with multiple deformations. When available we agree with older results, but we also produce a wealth of new ones. Unitarity and crossing symmetry are not used in our approach and we are able to apply our method to non-unitary theories as well. Some implications of our results for the study of the non-unitary theories containing partially conserved higher-spin currents are briefly mentioned.