A bstract It is a long-standing conjecture that any CFT with a large central charge and a large gap ∆ gap in the spectrum of higher-spin single-trace operators must be dual to a local effective field theory in AdS. We prove a sharp form of this conjecture by deriving numerical bounds on bulk Wilson coefficients in terms of ∆ gap using the conformal bootstrap. Our bounds exhibit the scaling in ∆ gap expected from dimensional analysis in the bulk. Our main tools are dispersive sum rules that provide a dictionary between CFT dispersion relations and S-matrix dispersion relations in appropriate limits. This dictionary allows us to apply recently-developed flat-space methods to construct positive CFT functionals. We show how AdS 4 naturally resolves the infrared divergences present in 4D flat-space bounds. Our results imply the validity of twice-subtracted dispersion relations for any S-matrix arising from the flat-space limit of AdS/CFT.
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Dispersive CFT sum rules
A bstract We give a unified treatment of dispersive sum rules for four-point correlators in conformal field theory. We call a sum rule “dispersive” if it has double zeros at all double-twist operators above a fixed twist gap. Dispersive sum rules have their conceptual origin in Lorentzian kinematics and absorptive physics (the notion of double discontinuity). They have been discussed using three seemingly different methods: analytic functionals dual to double-twist operators, dispersion relations in position space, and dispersion relations in Mellin space. We show that these three approaches can be mapped into one another and lead to completely equivalent sum rules. A central idea of our discussion is a fully nonperturbative expansion of the correlator as a sum over Polyakov-Regge blocks . Unlike the usual OPE sum, the Polyakov-Regge expansion utilizes the data of two separate channels, while having (term by term) good Regge behavior in the third channel. We construct sum rules which are non-negative above the double-twist gap; they have the physical interpretation of a subtracted version of “superconvergence” sum rules. We expect dispersive sum rules to be a very useful tool to study expansions around mean-field theory, and to constrain the low-energy description of holographic CFTs with a large gap. We give examples of the first kind of applications, notably we exhibit a candidate extremal functional for the spin-two gap problem.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1915093
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10249286
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of High Energy Physics
- Volume:
- 2021
- Issue:
- 5
- ISSN:
- 1029-8479
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
-
Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP05(2021)243
