Spontaneously broken conformal symmetry: dealing with the trace anomaly

The majority of renormalizable field theories possessing the scale invariance at the classical level exhibits the trace anomaly once quantum corrections are taken into account. This leads to the breaking of scale and conformal invariance. At the same time any realistic theory must contain gravity and is thus non-renormalizable. We show that discarding the renormalizability it is possible to construct viable models allowing to preserve the scale invariance at the quantum level. We present explicit one-loop computations for two toy models to demonstrate the main idea of the approach. Constructing the renormalized energy momentum tensor we show that it is traceless, meaning that the conformal invariance is also preserved.

Perturbative and non-perturbative aspects of RG flows in quantum field theory

Lorenzo Vitale

This thesis explores two aspects of the renormalization group (RG) in quantum field theory (QFT). In the first part we study the structure of RG flows in general Poincaré-invariant, unitary QFTs, and in particular the irreversibility properties and the relation between scale and conformal invariance. Within the formalism of the local Callan--Symanzik equation, we derive a series of results in four and six-dimensional QFTs. Specifically, in the four dimensional case we revisit and complete existing proofs of the

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-theorem and of the equivalence between scale and conformal invariance in perturbation theory. We then present an original derivation of similar results in six-dimensional QFTs. In the second part we present the Hamiltonian Truncation method and study its applicability to the numerical solution of non-perturbative RG flows. We test the method in the Phi^4 model in two dimensions and show how it can be used to make quantitative predictions for the low-energy observables. In particular, we calculate the numerical spectrum and estimate the critical coupling at which the theory becomes conformal. We also compare our results to previous estimates. The main original ingredient of our analysis is an analytic renormalization procedure used to improve the numerical convergence. We then adapt the method in order to treat the strongly-coupled regime of the model where the Z2 symmetry is spontaneously broken. We reproduce perturbative and non-perturbative observables and compare our results with analytical predictions.

EPFL2016

Constraints on perturbative RG flows in six dimensions

Lorenzo Vitale

When conformal field theories (CFTs) are perturbed by marginally relevant deformations, renormalization group (RG) flows ensue that can be studied with perturbative methods, at least as long as they remain close to the original CFT. In this work we study such RG flows in the vicinity of six-dimensional unitary CFTs. Neglecting effects of scalar operators of dimension two and four, we use Weyl consistency conditions to prove the alpha-theorem in perturbation theory, and establish that scale implies conformal invariance. We identify a quantity that monotonically decreases in the flow to the infrared due to unitarity, showing that it does not agree with the one studied recently in the literature on the six-dimensional O-3 theory.

Springer2016

Hidden and explicit quantum scale invariance

Sander Johannes Nicolaas Mooij, Thibault Voumard

There exist renormalization schemes that explicitly preserve the scale invariance of a theory at the quantum level. Imposing a scale-invariant renormalization breaks renormalizability and induces new nontrivial operators in the theory. In this work, we study the effects of such scale-invariant renormalization procedures. On the one hand, an explicitly quantum scale-invariant theory can emerge from the scale-invariant renormalization of a scale-invariant Lagrangian. On the other hand, we show how a quantum scale-invariant theory can equally emerge from a Lagrangian visibly breaking scale invariance renormalized with scale-dependent renormalization (such as the traditional (MS) over bar scheme). In this last case, scale invariance is hidden in the theory, in the sense that it only appears explicitly after renormalization.

2019

Perturbative and non-perturbative aspects of RG flows in quantum field theory

Lorenzo Vitale

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EPFL2016