Search

We consider a higher derivative scalar field theory in the presence of a boundary and a classically marginal interaction. We first investigate the free limit where the scalar obeys the square of the Klein-Gordon equation. In precisely $d=6$ dimensions, modules generated by $d-2$ and $d-4$ dimensional primaries merge to form a staggered module. We compute the conformal block associated with this module and show that it is a generalized eigenvector of the Casimir operator. Next we include the effect of a classically marginal interaction that involves four scalar fields and two derivatives. The theory has an infrared fixed point in $d=6-{\epsilon}$ dimensions. We compute boundary operator anomalous dimensions and boundary OPE coefficients at leading order in the ${\epsilon}$ expansion for the allowed conformal boundary conditions.

The coupling constants of fixed points in the $\epsilon$ expansion at one loop are known to satisfy a quadratic bound due to Rychkov and Stergiou. We refer to fixed points that saturate this bound as extremal fixed points. The theories which contain such fixed points are those which undergo a saddle-node bifurcation, entailing the presence of a marginal operator. Among bifundamental theories, a few examples of infinite families of such theories are known. A necessary condition for extremality is that the sizes of the factors of the symmetry group of a given theory satisfy a specific Diophantine equation, given in terms of what we call the extremality polynomial. In this work we study such Diophantine equations and employ a combination of rigorous and probabilistic estimates to argue that these infinite families constitute rare exceptions. The Pell equation, Falting's theorem, Siegel's theorem, and elliptic curves figure prominently in our analysis. In the cases we study here, more generic classes of multi-fundamental theories saturate the Rychkov-Stergiou bound only in sporadic cases or in limits where they degenerate into simpler known examples., Comment: v2: figure 3 fixed, new footnote on page 26, minor linguistic changes

We use the numerical conformal bootstrap to study boundary quantum electrodynamics, the theory of a four dimensional photon in a half space coupled to charged conformal matter on the boundary. This system is believed to be a boundary conformal field theory with an exactly marginal coupling corresponding to the strength of the interaction between the photon and the matter degrees of freedom. In part one of this project, we present three results. We show how the Maxwell equations put severe constraints on boundary three-point functions involving two currents and a symmetric traceless tensor. We use semi-definite programming to show that any three dimensional conformal field theory with a global U(1) symmetry must have a spin two gap less than about 1.05. Finally, combining a numerical bound on an OPE coefficient and some Ward identities involving the current and the displacement operator, we bound the displacement operator two-point function above. This upper bound also constrains a boundary contribution to the anomaly in the trace of the stress tensor for these types of theories., Comment: 33 pages + appendices, 8 figures

In boundary conformal field theories, global symmetries can be broken by boundary conditions, generating a homogeneous conformal manifold. We investigate these geometries, showing they have a coset structure, and give fully worked out examples in the case of free fields of spin zero and one-half. These results give a simple illustration of the salient features of conformal manifolds while generalising to interacting and more intricate setups. Our work was inspired by [2203.17157], Comment: 5 pages

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., Comment: 49 pages, 2 figures. v2: References and minor comments added. v3: Comments added

We use the equations of motion in combination with crossing symmetry to constrain the properties of interacting fermionic boundary conformal field theories. This combination is an efficient way of determining operator product expansion coefficients and anomalous dimensions at the first few orders of the $\epsilon$ expansion. Two necessary ingredients for this procedure are knowledge of the boundary and bulk spinor conformal blocks. The bulk spinor conformal blocks are derived here for the first time. We then consider a number of examples. For $\phi$ a scalar field and $\psi$ a fermionic field, we study the effects of a $\phi \bar \psi \psi$ coupling in $4- \epsilon$ dimensions, a $\phi^2 \bar \psi \psi$ coupling in $3 -\epsilon$ dimensions, and a $(\bar \psi \psi)^2$ coupling in $2+\epsilon$ dimensions. We are able to compute some new anomalous dimensions for operators in these theories. Finally, we relate the anomalous dimension of a surface operator to the behavior of the charge density near the surface., Comment: 36 pages + appendices. Comments welcome. v2 : Typo corrected and added references. v3: sign in appendix D corrected, ref added

We consider a free Maxwell field in four dimensions in the presence of a codimension two defect. Reflection positive, codimension two defects which preserve conformal symmetry in this context are very limited. We show only generalized free fields can appear in the defect operator product expansion of the bulk Maxwell field; in particular correlation functions of these defect operators can be evaluated via Wick's Theorem., Comment: 46 pages, 1 figure

Motivated by questions about quantum information and classification of quantum field theories, we consider Conformal Field Theories (CFTs) in spacetime dimension $d\geq 5$ with a conformally-invariant spatial boundary (BCFTs) or $4$-dimensional conformal defect (DCFTs). We determine the boundary or defect contribution to the Weyl anomaly using the standard algorithm, which includes imposing Wess-Zumino consistency and fixing finite counterterms. These boundary/defect contributions are built from the intrinsic and extrinsic curvatures, as well as the pullback of the ambient CFT's Weyl tensor. For a co-dimension one boundary or defect (i.e. $d=5$), we reproduce the $9$ parity-even terms found by Astaneh and Solodukhin, and we discover $3$ parity-odd terms. For larger co-dimension, we find $23$ parity-even terms and $6$ parity-odd terms. The coefficient of each term defines a "central charge" that characterizes the BCFT or DCFT. We show how several of the parity-even central charges enter physical observables, namely the displacement operator two-point function, the stress-tensor one-point function, and the universal part of the entanglement entropy. We compute several parity-even central charges in tractable examples: monodromy and conical defects of free, massless scalars and Dirac fermions in $d=6$; probe branes in Anti-de Sitter (AdS) space dual to defects in CFTs with $d \geq 6$; and Takayanagi's AdS/BCFT with $d=5$. We demonstrate that several of our examples obey the boundary/defect $a$-theorem, as expected., Comment: 1+73 pages, 7 figures, 1 ancillary Mathematica notebook; v2: references and clarifying footnote added, typos corrected, published in JHEP; v3: additional references added

In the context of boundary conformal field theory, we derive a sum rule that relates two and three point functions of the displacement operator. For four dimensional conformal field theory with a three dimensional boundary, this sum rule in turn relates the two boundary contributions to the anomaly in the trace of the stress tensor. We check our sum rule for a variety of free theories and also for a weakly interacting theory, where a free scalar in the bulk couples marginally to a generalized free field on the boundary., Comment: 38 pages, 2 figures. v2 : added references; typos corrected, minor simplifications; matches published version

Quantum spin liquids are topological states of matter that arise in frustrated quantum magnets at low temperatures. At low energies, such states exhibit emergent gauge fields and fractionalized quasiparticles and can also possess enhanced global symmetries compared to their parent microscopic Hamiltonians. We study the consequences of this emergent gauge and symmetry structure for the hydrodynamics of quantum spin liquids. Specifically, we analyze two cases, the $U(1)$ spin liquid with a Fermi surface and the $SU(4)$-symmetric "algebraic" spin liquid. We show that the emergent degrees of freedom in the spin liquid phase lead to a variety of additional hydrodynamic modes compared to the high-temperature paramagnetic phase. We identify a hydrodynamic regime for the internal $U(1)$ gauge field common to both states, characterized by slow diffusion of the internal transverse photon., Comment: v2: 11+4 pages, 1 figure, accepted version

In previous work, we showed that an anomaly in the one point function of marginal operators is related by the Wess-Zumino condition to the Euler density anomaly on a two dimensional defect or boundary. Here we analyze in detail the two point functions of marginal operators with the stress tensor and with the displacement operator in three dimensions. We show how to get the boundary anomaly from these bulk two point functions and find perfect agreement with our anomaly effective action. For a higher dimensional conformal field theory with a four dimensional defect, we describe for the first time the anomaly effective action that relates the Euler density term to the one point function anomaly, generalizing our result for two dimensional defects.

This paper is designed to be a practical tool for constructing and investigating two-point correlation functions in defect conformal field theory, directly in physical space, between any two bulk primaries or between a bulk primary and a defect primary, with arbitrary spin. Although geometrically elegant and ultimately a more powerful approach, the embedding space formalism gets rather cumbersome when dealing with mixed symmetry tensors, especially in the projection to physical space. The results in this paper provide an alternative method for studying two-point correlation functions for a generic $d$-dimensional conformal field theory with a flat $p$-dimensional defect and $d-p=q$ co-dimensions. We tabulate some examples of correlation functions involving a conserved current, an energy momentum tensor and a Maxwell field strength, while analysing the constraints arising from conservation and the equations of motion. A method for obtaining bulk-to-defect correlators is also explained. Some explicit examples are considered: free scalar theory on $\mathbb{R}^p \times ({\mathbb R}^q / {\mathbb Z}_2)$ and a free four dimensional Maxwell theory on a wedge., Comment: 34 pages, supplementary Mathematica notebook available; v2: Revised the discussion of embedding space in the Intro, corrected typos, results unchanged

We study the large $N$ limit of $O(N)$ scalar field theory with classically marginal $\phi^6$ interaction in three dimensions in the presence of a planar boundary. This theory has an approximate conformal invariance at large $N$. We find different phases of the theory corresponding to different boundary conditions for the scalar field. Computing a one loop effective potential, we examine the stability of these different phases. The potential also allows us to determine a boundary anomaly coefficient in the trace of the stress tensor. We further compute the current and stress-tensor two point functions for the Dirichlet case and decompose them into boundary and bulk conformal blocks. The boundary limit of the stress tensor two point function allows us to compute the other boundary anomaly coefficient. Both anomaly coefficients depend on the approximately marginal $\phi^6$ coupling., Comment: 36pages, 6 figures

We consider two $d \geq 2$ conformal field theories (CFTs) glued together along a codimension one conformal interface. The conformal anomaly of such a system contains both bulk and interface contributions. In a curved-space setup, we compute the heat kernel coefficients and interface central charges in free theories. The results are consistent with the known boundary CFT data via the folding trick. In $d=4$, two interface invariants generally allowed as anomalies turn out to have vanishing interface charges. These missing invariants are constructed from components with odd parity with respect to flipping the orientation of the defect. We conjecture that all invariants constructed from components with odd parity may have vanishing coefficient for symmetric interfaces, even in the case of interacting interface CFT., Comment: 14 pp; v2: clarifications added, introduction expanded

We review recent progress in taking the large dimension limit of Einstein's equations. Most of our analysis is classical in nature and concerns situations where there is a black hole horizon although we briefly discuss various extensions that include quantum gravitational effects. The review consists of two main parts: the first a discussion of general aspects of black holes and effective membrane theories in this large dimension limit, and the second a series of applications of this limit to interesting physical problems. The first part includes a discussion of quasinormal modes which leads naturally into a description of effective hydrodynamic-like equations that describe the near horizon geometry. There are two main approaches to these effective theories -- a fully covariant approach and a partially gauge-fixed one -- which we discuss in relation to each other. In the second part we divide the applications up into three main categories: the Gregory-Laflamme instability, black hole collisions and mergers, and the anti-de Sitter/conformal field theory correspondence (AdS/CFT). AdS/CFT posits an equivalence between a gravitational theory and a strongly interacting field theory, allowing us to extend our spectrum of applications to problems in hydrodynamics, condensed matter physics, and nuclear physics. A final, shorter part of the review describes further promising directions where there have been, as yet, few published research articles., Comment: 59 pages, 10 figures; formatted for submission as a review to RMP; please send us feedback

We use localization to compute the partition function of a four dimensional, supersymmetric, abelian gauge theory on a hemisphere coupled to charged matter on the boundary. Our theory has eight real supercharges in the bulk of which four are broken by the presence of the boundary. The main result is that the partition function is identical to that of ${\mathcal N}=2$ abelian Chern-Simons theory on a three-sphere coupled to chiral multiplets, but where the quantized Chern-Simons level is replaced by an arbitrary complexified gauge coupling $\tau$. The localization reduces the path integral to a single ordinary integral over a real variable. This integral in turn allows us to calculate the scaling dimensions of certain protected operators and two-point functions of abelian symmetry currents at arbitrary values of $\tau$. Because the underlying theory has conformal symmetry, the current two-point functions tell us the zero temperature conductivity of the Lorentzian versions of these theories at any value of the coupling. We comment on S-dualities which relate different theories of supersymmetric graphene. We identify a couple of self-dual theories for which the complexified conductivity associated to the U(1) gauge symmetry is $\tau/2$., Comment: 36 pages, 6 figures; v2 refs added

Even dimensional defects and boundaries in conformal field theory support type $a$ anomalies on their world-volume. We show that the one-point functions of marginal operators, in the presence of defects and boundaries, are anomalous, and that the Wess-Zumino consistency condition relates them to the derivative of the $a$-anomaly with respect to the marginal coupling. We also argue that the constant term $F$ for odd dimensional surfaces can depend on marginal parameters., Comment: 5 pages. v2: references added, v3: grant info added

The presence of a boundary (or defect) in a conformal field theory allows one to generalize the notion of an exactly marginal deformation. Without a boundary, one must find an operator of protected scaling dimension $\Delta$ equal to the space-time dimension $d$ of the conformal field theory, while with a boundary, as long as the operator dimension is protected, one can make up for the difference $d-\Delta$ by including a factor $z^{\Delta-d}$ in the deformation where $z$ is the distance from the boundary. This coordinate dependence does not lead to a reduction in the underlying $SO(d,1)$ global conformal symmetry group of the boundary conformal field theory. We show that such terms can arise from boundary flows in interacting field theories. Ultimately, we would like to be able to characterize what types of boundary conformal field theories live on the orbits of such deformations. As a first step, we consider a free scalar with a conformally invariant mass term $z^{-2} \phi^2$, and a fermion with a similar mass. We find a connection to double trace deformations in the AdS/CFT literature., Comment: v2: references added, v3: grant info added

We use gauge/gravity duality to study the dynamics of strongly coupled gauge theories undergoing boost invariant expansion in an arbitrary number of space-time dimensions (D). By keeping the scale of the late-time energy density fixed, we explore the infinite-D limit and study the first few corrections to this expansion. In agreement with other studies, we find that the large-D dynamics are controlled by hydrodynamics and we use our computation to constrain the leading large-D dependence of a certain combination of transport coefficients up to 6-th order in gradients. Going beyond late time physics, we discuss how non-hydrodynamic modes appear in the large-D expansion in the form of a trans-series in D, identical to the non-perturbative contributions to the gradient expansion. We discuss the consequence of this trans-series in the non-convergence of the large-D expansion., Comment: 38 pages, 3 figures. v2: Typos corrected, references added

In the context of boundary conformal field theory, we investigate whether the boundary trace anomaly can depend on marginal directions in the presence of supersymmetry. Recently, it was found that a graphene-like non-supersymmetric conformal field theory with a four-dimensional bulk photon and a three-dimensional boundary electron has two boundary central charges that depend on an exactly marginal direction, namely the gauge coupling. In this work, we supersymmetrize this theory, paying special attention to the boundary terms required by supersymmetry. We study models with 4, 8, and 16 Poincar\'e supercharges in the bulk, half of which are broken by the boundary. In all cases, we find that at all orders in perturbation theory, the gauge coupling is not renormalized, providing strong evidence that these theories are boundary conformal field theories. Moreover, the boundary central charges depend on the coupling. One possible exception to this dependence on marginal directions is that the difference between the two charges is coupling independent at one-loop in the maximally supersymmetric case. In our analysis, a possible boundary Chern-Simons term is incorporated by a bulk $\theta$-term., Comment: 47 pages; v2: footnotes and references added

We study the dynamics of a black hole in an asymptotically $AdS_d \times S^d$ space-time in the limit of a large number of dimensions, $d \to \infty$. Such a black hole is known to become dynamically unstable below a critical radius. We derive the dispersion relation for the quasinormal mode that governs this instability in an expansion in $1/d$. We also provide a full nonlinear analysis of the instability at leading order in $1/d$. We find solutions that resemble the lumpy black spots and black belts previously constructed numerically for small $d$, breaking the $SO(d+1)$ rotational symmetry of the sphere down to $SO(d)$. We are also able to follow the time evolution of the instability. Due possibly to limitations in our analysis, our time dependent simulations do not settle down to stationary solutions. This work has relevance for strongly interacting gauge theories; through the AdS/CFT correspondence, the special case $d=5$ corresponds to maximally supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory on a spatial $S^3$ in the microcanonical ensemble and in a strong coupling and large number of colors limit., Comment: 20 pages + 10 pages of appendices, 7 figures

Boundary conformal field theories have several additional terms in the trace anomaly of the stress tensor associated purely with the boundary. We constrain the corresponding boundary central charges in three- and four-dimensional conformal field theories in terms of two- and three-point correlation functions of the displacement operator. We provide a general derivation by comparing the trace anomaly with scale dependent contact terms in the correlation functions. We conjecture a relation between the a-type boundary charge in three dimensions and the stress tensor two-point function near the boundary. We check our results for several free theories., Comment: 5 pages

We consider the structure of current and stress tensor two-point functions in conformal field theory with a boundary. The main result of this paper is a relation between a boundary central charge and the coefficient of a displacement operator correlation function in the boundary limit. The boundary central charge under consideration is the coefficient of the product of the extrinsic curvature and the Weyl curvature in the conformal anomaly. Along the way, we describe several auxiliary results. Three of the more notable are as follows: (1) we give the bulk and boundary conformal blocks for the current two-point function; (2) we show that the structure of these current and stress tensor two-point functions is essentially universal for all free theories; (3) we introduce a class of interacting conformal field theories with boundary degrees of freedom, where the interactions are confined to the boundary. The most interesting example we consider can be thought of as the infrared fixed point of graphene. This particular interacting conformal model in four dimensions provides a counterexample of a previously conjectured relation between a boundary central charge and a bulk central charge. The model also demonstrates that the boundary central charge can change in response to marginal deformations., Comment: 75 pages, 4 figures; v2: references added. v3: comments on anomalous dimension and references added. v4: minor corrections, published version

The boundary Weyl anomalies live on a codimension-1 boundary, $\partial {\cal M}$. The entanglement entropy originates from infinite correlations on both sides of a codimension-2 surface, $\Sigma$. Motivated to have a further understanding of the boundary effects, we introduce a notion of reduction entropy, which, guided by thermodynamics, is a combination of the boundary effective action and the boundary stress tensor defined by allowing the metric on $\partial {\cal M}$ to fluctuate. We discuss how a reduction might be performed so that the reduction entropy reproduces the entanglement structure., Comment: 5+1 pages, 1 figure; v2: Improved discussion on a-type variation, conjecture RE=EE formulated to be independent of BCs imposed on matter fields, to appear in PRD Rapid Communications

In entanglement computations for a free scalar field with coupling to background curvature, there is a boundary term in the modular Hamiltonian which must be correctly specified in order to get sensible results. We focus here on the entanglement in flat space across a planar interface and (in the case of conformal coupling) other geometries related to this one by Weyl rescaling of the metric. For these "half-space entanglement" computations, we give a new derivation of the boundary term and revisit how it clears up a number of puzzles in the literature, including mass corrections and twist operator dimensions. We also discuss how related boundary terms may show up in other field theories., Comment: 34 + 7 pages, 8 figures, v2: references added, typos corrected, v3: minor changes

We study properties of a non equilibrium steady state generated when two heat baths are initially in contact with one another. The dynamics of the system we study are governed by holographic duality in a large number of dimensions. We discuss the "phase diagram" associated with the steady state; the dual, dynamical, black hole description of this problem; and its relation to the fluid/gravity correspondence., Comment: 34 pages, 35 figures; v2 ref added, bug in hyperlinks fixed; v3 clarifying remarks added, version to appear in JHEP

In this letter we study the negativity of one dimensional free fermions. We derive the general form of the $\mathbb{Z}_{N}$ symmetric term in moments of the partial transposed (reduced) density matrix, which is an algebraic function of the end points of the system. Such a path integral turns out to be a convenient tool for making estimations for the negativity., Comment: 18 pages, 2 figures; v2: minor typos corrected,v3: minor revision,v4:minor typos corrected

We review recent interest in the relativistic Riemann problem as a method for generating a non-equilibrium steady state. In the version of the problem under con- sideration, the initial conditions consist of a planar interface between two halves of a system held at different temperatures in a hydrodynamic regime. The new double shock solutions are in contrast with older solutions that involve one shock and one rarefaction wave. We use numerical simulations to show that the older solutions are preferred. Briefly we discuss the effects of a conserved charge. Finally, we discuss deforming the relativistic equations with a nonlinear term and how that deformation affects the temperature and velocity in the region connecting the asymptotic fluids., Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures

Employing a conformal map to hyperbolic space cross a circle, we compute the universal contribution to the vacuum entanglement entropy (EE) across a sphere in even-dimensional conformal field theory. Previous attempts to derive the EE in this way were hindered by a lack of knowledge of the appropriate boundary terms in the trace anomaly. In this paper we show that the universal part of the EE can be treated as a purely boundary effect. As a byproduct of our computation, we derive an explicit form for the A-type anomaly contribution to the Wess-Zumino term for the trace anomaly, now including boundary terms. In d=4 and 6, these boundary terms generalize earlier bulk actions derived in the literature., Comment: 35 pages text plus 17 pages appendices and references, 3 figures; v2 package conflict resolved; v3 refs added, claim regarding newness of boundary central charge in d=4 removed, factor of 3 typo fixed

We calculate thermal corrections to R\'{e}nyi entropies for free massless fermions on a sphere. More specifically, we take a free fermion on $\mathbb{R}\times\mathbb{S}^{d-1}$ and calculate the leading thermal correction to the R\'{e}nyi entropies for a cap like region with opening angle $2\theta$. By expanding the density matrix in a Boltzmann sum, the problem of finding the R\'{e}nyi entropies can be mapped to the problem of calculating a two point function on an $n$ sheeted cover of the sphere. We follow previous work for conformal field theories to map the problem on the sphere to a conical region in Euclidean space. By using the method of images, we calculate the two point function and recover the R\'{e}nyi entropies., Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures

We compute thermal corrections to R\'enyi entropies of $d$ dimensional conformal field theories on spheres. Consider the $n$th R\'enyi entropy for a cap of opening angle $2 \theta$ on $S^{d-1}$. From a Boltzmann sum decomposition and the operator-state correspondence, the leading correction is related to a certain two-point correlation function of the operator (not equal to the identity) with smallest scaling dimension. More specifically, via a conformal map, the correction can be expressed in terms of the two-point function on a certain conical space with opening angle $2\pi n$. In the case of free conformal field theories, this two-point function can be computed explicitly using the method of images. We perform the computation for the conformally coupled scalar. From the $n \to 1$ limit of our results, we extract the leading thermal correction to the entanglement entropy, reproducing results of arXiv:1407.1358., Comment: 18 pages, 5 figures; v2 reference added

We consider entanglement entropy of a cap-like region for a conformal field theory living on a sphere times a circle in d space-time dimensions. Assuming that the finite size of the system introduces a unique ground state with a nonzero mass gap, we calculate the leading correction to the entanglement entropy in a low temperature expansion. The correction has a universal form for any conformal field theory that depends only on the size of the mass gap, its degeneracy, and the angular size of the cap. We confirm our result by calculating the entanglement entropy of a conformally coupled scalar numerically. We argue that an apparent discrepancy for the scalar can be explained away through a careful treatment of boundary terms. In an appendix, to confirm the accuracy of the numerics, we study the mutual information of two cap-like regions at zero temperature., Comment: 18 pages, 5 figures; v2, major revision, discrepancy explained (published version); v3, beta typo fixed, refs added

Starting with the holographic p-wave superconductor, we show how to obtain a finite DC conductivity through a non-abelian gauge transformation. The translational symmetry is preserved. We obtain phenomenological similarities with high temperature cuprate superconductors. Our results suggest that a lattice or impurities are not essential to produce a finite DC resistivity with a linear temperature dependence. An analogous field theory calculation for free fermions, presented in the appendix, indicates our results may be a special feature of strong interactions., Comment: 27 pages, 12 figures; v4: An analogous field theory calculation added. Small changes to abstract, introduction, discussion and reference. To appear in JHEP

We consider single interval R\'enyi and entanglement entropies for a two dimensional conformal field theory on a circle at nonzero temperature. Assuming that the finite size of the system introduces a unique ground state with a nonzero mass gap, we calculate the leading corrections to the R\'enyi and entanglement entropy in a low temperature expansion. These corrections have a universal form for any two dimensional conformal field theory that depends only on the size of the mass gap and its degeneracy. We analyze the limits where the size of the interval becomes small and where it becomes close to the size of the spatial circle., Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure; v2 minor clarifications added, to appear in PRL

We present a numerical scheme for solving Einstein's Equations in the presence of a negative cosmological constant and an event horizon with planar topology. Our scheme allows for the introduction of a particular metric source at the conformal boundary. Such a spacetime has a dual holographic description in terms of a strongly interacting quantum field theory at nonzero temperature. By introducing a sinusoidal static metric source that breaks translation invariance, we study momentum relaxation in the field theory. In the long wavelength limit, our results are consistent with the fluid-gravity correspondence and relativistic hydrodynamics. In the small amplitude limit, our results are consistent with the memory function prediction for the momentum relaxation rate. Our numerical scheme allows us to study momentum relaxation outside these two limits as well., Comment: 29+12 pages, 12 figures (version2: added some references, Figure 7 improved and other minor changes in presentation)

We consider a one dimensional system of $N$ bosons interacting via an attractive Dirac delta function potential. We place the bosonic quantum particles at thermal equilibrium in a box of length $L$ with periodic boundary conditions. At large $N$ and for $L$ much larger than the diameter of a two particle bound state, we predict by numerical and analytical studies of a simple model derived from first principles that the system exhibits a first order phase transition in a high temperature, non-degenerate regime. The higher temperature phase is an almost pure atomic gas, with a small fraction of dimers, a smaller fraction of trimers, etc. The lower temperature phase is a mesoscopic or macroscopic bound state that collects all the particles of the system with the exception of a small gaseous fraction composed mainly of atoms. We term this phase, which is the quantum equivalent of the classical bright soliton, a liquid.---Nous considerons, en dimension un, une assemblee de $N$ particules quantiques bosoniques interagissant par un potentiel de Dirac attractif, a l'equilibre thermique dans une boite de quantification de longueur L avec des conditions aux limites periodiques. Pour de grandes valeurs de N, et lorsque L est bien superieur au diametre de l'etat dimere dans l'espace reel, nous predisons, par etude numerique et analytique d'un modele simple mais deduit des premiers principes, que le systeme presente, a haute temperature c'est-a-dire dans le regime non degenere, une transition du premier ordre entre deux phases. La phase privilegiee a haute temperature est un gaz presque pur d'atomes, avec une faible fraction de dimeres, et des fractions encore plus faibles de trimeres, etc. La phase qui la supplante a moins haute temperature est un etat lie mesoscopique ou macroscopique que nous qualifions de liquide, equivalent quantique du soliton brillant de la theorie de champ classique, et qui renferme toutes les particules du systeme, a l'exception d'une petite fraction gazeuse composee essentiellement d'atomes., Comment: augmented english (14 pages) and french (15 pages) versions: with respect to published version, appendix A added to improve upper bound (28)

Using trace anomalies, we determine the vacuum stress tensors of arbitrary even dimensional conformal field theories in Weyl flat backgrounds. We demonstrate a simple relation between the Casimir energy on the real line times a sphere and the type A anomaly coefficient. This relation generalizes earlier results in two and four dimensions. These field theory results for the Casimir are shown to be consistent with holographic predictions in two, four, and six dimensions., Comment: 10 pages; v2 refs and footnote added; v3 discussion of weak coupling calculation added

The Renyi entropies of a massless Dirac fermion on a circle with chemical potential are calculated analytically at nonzero temperature by using the bosonization method. The bosonization of a massive Dirac fermion to the sine-Gordon model lets us obtain the small mass corrections to the entropies. We numerically compute the Renyi entropies by putting a massive fermion on the lattice and find agreement between the analytic and numerical results. In the presence of a mass gap, we show that corrections to Renyi and entanglement entropies in the limit m >> T scale as exp(-m/T). We also show that when there is ground state degeneracy in the gapless case, the limits m to zero and T to zero do not commute., Comment: 29 pages, 14 figures

We apply the matrix model of Kapustin, Willett and Yaakov to compute the free energy of N=3 Chern-Simons matter theories with D_n quivers in the large N limit. We conjecture a general expression for the free energy that is explicitly invariant under Seiberg duality and show that it can be interpreted as a sum over certain graphs known as signed graphs. Through the AdS/CFT correspondence, this leads to a prediction for the volume of certain tri-Sasaki Einstein manifolds. We also study the unfolding procedure, which relates these D_n quivers to A_{2n-5} quivers. Furthermore, we consider the addition of massive fundamental flavor fields, verifying that integrating these out decreases the free energy in accordance with the F-theorem., Comment: 24 pages, 8 figures

As a toy model of a gapped system, we investigate the entanglement entropy of a massive scalar field in 1+1 dimensions at nonzero temperature. In a small mass m and temperature T limit, we put upper and lower bounds on the two largest eigenvalues of the covariance matrix used to compute the entanglement entropy. We argue that the entanglement entropy has exp(-m/T) scaling in the limit m >> T. We comment on the relation between our work and the Ryu-Takayanagi proposal for computing the entanglement entropy holographically., Comment: 17 pages, 11 figures; v2 ref added, typos fixed; v3 refs added, minor clarifications, version to appear in PRD

We study the Green's function of a gauge invariant fermionic operator in a strongly coupled field theory at nonzero temperature and density using a dual gravity description. The gravity model contains a charged black hole in four dimensional anti-de Sitter space and probe charged fermions. In particular, we consider the effects of the spin of these probe fermions on the properties of the Green's function. There exists a spin-orbit coupling between the spin of an electron and the electric field of a Reissner-Nordstrom black hole. On the field theory side, this coupling leads to a Rashba like dispersion relation. We also study the effects of spin on the damping term in the dispersion relation by considering how the spin affects the placement of the fermionic quasinormal modes in the complex frequency plane in a WKB limit. An appendix contains some exact solutions of the Dirac equation in terms of Heun polynomials., Comment: 27 pages, 11 figures; v2: minor changes, published version