Calculus on manifolds of conformal maps and CFT

DOI10.1088/1751-8113/45/31/315202zbMATH Open1258.81076arXiv1004.0138OpenAlexW2044414053MaRDI QIDQ2906997FDOQ2906997

Authors: Benjamin Doyon 

Publication date: 5 September 2012

Published in: Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: In conformal field theory (CFT) on simply connected domains of the Riemann sphere, the natural conformal symmetries under self-maps are extended, in a certain way, to local symmetries under general conformal maps, and this is at the basis of the powerful techniques of CFT. Conformal maps of simply connected domains naturally have the structure of an infinite-dimensional groupoid, which generalizes the finite-dimensional group of self-maps. We put a topological structure on the space of conformal maps on simply connected domains, which makes it into a topological groupoid. Further, we (almost) extend this to a local manifold structure based on the infinite-dimensional Frechet topological vector space of holomorphic functions on a given domain A. From this, we develop the notion of conformal A-differentiability at the identity. Our main conclusion is that quadratic differentials characterizing cotangent elements on the local manifold enjoy properties similar to those of the holomorphic stress-energy tensor of CFT; these properties underpin the local symmetries of CFT. Applying the general formalism to CFT correlation functions, we show that the stress-energy tensor is exactly such a quadratic differential. This is at the basis of constructing the stress-energy tensor in conformal loop ensembles. It also clarifies the relation between Cardy's boundary conditions for CFT on simply connected domains, and the expression of the stress-energy tensor in terms of metric variations.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1004.0138

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zbMATH Keywords

conformal field theorySchramm-Loewner evolutionconformal loop ensembleWard identitygroupoid of conformal mapsFréchet space

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Two-dimensional field theories, conformal field theories, etc. in quantum mechanics (81T40) Pseudogroups and differentiable groupoids (58H05)

Cited In (9)

• CFTs on curved spaces
• Calculus and invariants on almost complex manifolds, including projective and conformal geometry
• Curvature formula for the space of 2-d conformal field theories
• Hypotrochoids in conformal restriction systems and Virasoro descendants
• Random loops and conformal field theory
• SLE and Virasoro representations: localization
• Classical and stochastic Löwner-Kufarev equations
• Conformal loop ensembles and the stress-energy tensor
• Probability theory in statistical physics, percolation, and other random topics: the work of C. Newman

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