Lorenzo Bianchi

We study local quantum field theories in anti–de Sitter (AdS) space, with boundary conditions that break some of the bulk isometries. Specifically, we focus on conformal defects and we prove that their spectrum supports a displacement operator of protected dimension, despite the nonlocal nature of the conformal theory living at the boundary of AdS. If the defect breaks a global symmetry, a tilt operator is also present. The existence of a displacement was conjectured in Gabai [] for Wilson loops in Yang-Mills theories in AdS. Our proof is valid in general and applies, in particular, to defects in long-range models, as we discuss in various examples. In the bulk, the modes sourced by the protected operators have Compton wavelength of order of the AdS radius: they constitute the AdS analogue of the Goldstone bosons for the spontaneous breaking of the corresponding symmetries.

A bstract: We initiate the lightcone bootstrap analysis of multipoint correlators in a defect conformal field theory. The setup we consider is the three-point function of two bulk and one defect operator. Requiring consistency of the crossing equation in the lightcone limit, we find constraints on the defect spectrum at large transverse spin. Specifically, to reproduce the exchange of the leading-twist operator in the bulk channel we find two new twist-accumulating families of defect operators at large transverse spin and we compute their defect CFT data in this limit.

We initiate the study of extended excitations in the long-range O(N) model. We focus on line and surface defects and we discuss the challenges of a naive generalization of the simplest defects in the short-range model. To face these challenges we propose three alternative realizations of defects in the long-range model. The first consists in introducing an additional parameter in the perturbative RG flow or, equivalently, treating the non-locality of the model as a perturbation of the local four-dimensional theory. The second is based on the introduction of non-local defect degrees of freedom coupled to the bulk and it provides some non-trivial defect CFTs also in the case of a free bulk, i.e. for generalized free field theory. The third approach is based on a semiclassical construction of line defects. After finding a non-trivial classical field configuration we consider the fluctuation Lagrangian to obtain quantum corrections for the defect theory.

We investigate the real time dynamics of the radiation produced by a local quench in a d-dimensional conformal field theory (CFT) with d > 2. Using the interpretation of the higher-dimensional twist operator as a conformal defect, we study the time evolution of the entanglement entropy of the radiation across a spherical entangling surface. We provide an analytic estimate for the early- and late-time behavior of the entanglement entropy and derive an upper bound valid at all times. We extend our analysis to the case of a boundary CFT (BCFT) and derive similar results through a detailed discussion of the setup with two conformal defects (the boundary and the twist operator). We conclude with a holographic analysis of the process, computing the time evolution of the holographic entanglement entropy (HEE) as the area of the Ryu-Takayanagi surface in a backreacted geometry. This gives a Page-like curve in agreement with the early- and late-time results obtained with CFT methods. The extension to a holographic BCFT setup is generically hard and we consider the case of a tensionless end-of-the-world brane.

We prove a conjectured relation between the energy-momentum and the displacement norm of superconformal defects. The proof completes earlier results, and shows that supersymmetry identifies two natural notions of brane tension in Anti-de Sitter gravity. As a byproduct we show that a modification of the energy-momentum tensor that removes the stress of static superconformal defects, ensures also that the radiation these emit obeys the Null Energy Condition. This sheds new light on the radiation-reaction problem for moving charges.

We initiate the study of extended excitations in the long-range O(N) model. We focus on line and surface defects and we discuss the challenges of a naive generalization of the simplest defects in the short-range model. To face these challenges we propose three alternative realizations of defects in the long-range model. The first consists in introducing an additional parameter in the perturbative RG flow or, equivalently, treating the non-locality of the model as a perturbation of the local four-dimensional theory. The second is based on the introduction of non-local defect degrees of freedom coupled to the bulk and it provides some non-trivial defect CFTs also in the case of a free bulk, i.e. for generalized free field theory. The third approach is based on a semiclassical construction of line defects. After finding a non-trivial classical field configuration we consider the fluctuation Lagrangian to obtain quantum corrections for the defect theory.

We study the O(3) critical model and the free theory of a scalar triplet in the presence of a magnetic impurity. We use analytic bootstrap techniques to extract results in the ε-expansion. First, we extend by one order in perturbation theory the computation of the beta function for the defect coupling in the free theory. Then, we analyze in detail the low-lying spectrum of defect operators, focusing on their perturbative realization when the defect is constructed as a path-ordered exponential. After this, we consider two different bulk two-point functions and we compute them using the defect dispersion relation. For a free bulk theory, we are able to fix the form of the correlator at all orders in ε. In particular, taking ε → 1, we can show that in d = 3 one does not have a consistent and non-trivial defect CFT. For an interacting bulk, we compute the correlator up to second order in ε. Expanding these results in the bulk and defect block expansions, we are able to extract an infinite set of defect CFT data. We discuss low-spin ambiguities that affect every result computed through the dispersion relation and we use a combination of consistency conditions and explicit diagrammatic calculations to fix this ambiguity.

We derive a dispersion relation for two-point correlation functions in defect conformal field theories. The correlator is expressed as an integral over a (single) discontinuity that is controlled by the bulk channel operator product expansion (OPE). This very simple relation is particularly useful in perturbative settings where the discontinuity is determined by a subset of bulk operators. In particular, we apply it to holographic correlators of two chiral primary operators in \mathcal{N}=4 ???? = 4 Super Yang-Mills theory in the presence of a supersymmetric Wilson line. With a very simple computation, we are able to reproduce and extend existing results. We also propose a second relation, which reconstructs the correlator from a double discontinuity, and is controlled by the defect channel OPE. Finally, for the case of codimension-one defects (boundaries and interfaces) we derive a dispersion relation which receives contributions from both OPE channels and we apply it to the boundary correlator in the O(N) critical model. We reproduce the order \epsilon^2 ϵ 2 result in the \epsilon ϵ -expansion using as input a finite number of boundary CFT data.

We study the entanglement and the energy density of the radiation emitted after a local quench in a boundary conformal field theory. We use the operator product expansion (OPE) to predict the early- and late-time behavior of the entanglement entropy and we find, under mild assumptions, a universal form for the leading term, which we test on some treatable two-dimensional examples. We also derive a general upper bound on the entanglement, valid along the full time evolution. In two dimensions, the bound is computed analytically, while in higher dimensions it is evaluated at early and late time via the OPE. These CFT predictions are then compared with a doubly-holographic setup where the CFT is interpreted as a reservoir for the radiation produced on an end-of-the-world brane. After finding the gravitational dual of a boundary local quench, we compute the time evolution of the holographic entanglement entropy, whose late-time behavior is in perfect agreement with the CFT predictions. In the brane+bath picture, unitarity of the time evolution is preserved thanks to the formation of an island. The holographic results can be recovered explicitly from the island formula, in the limit where the tension of the brane is close to the maximal value.

We study the two-point function of local operators in the critical O(N) model in the presence of a magnetic field localized on a line. We use a recently developed conformal dispersion relation to compute the correlator at first order in the ϵ-expansion and we extract the full set of defect and bulk CFT data using the Lorentzian inversion formulae. The only input for the computation of the connected correlator is its discontinuity at first order in perturbation theory, which is determined by the anomalous dimension of a single bulk operator. We discuss possible low-spin ambiguities and perform several diagrammatic checks of our results.