Critical Ising Model with Boundary Magnetic Field: RG Interface and Effective Hamiltonians

Critical 2D Ising model with a boundary magnetic field is arguably the simplest QFT that interpolates between two non-trivial fixed points. We use the diagonalising Bogolyubov transformation for this model to investigate two quantities. Firstly we explicitly construct an RG interface operator that is a boundary condition changing operator linking the free boundary condition with the one with a boundary magnetic field. We investigate its properties and in particular show that in the limit of large magnetic field this operator becomes the dimension 1/16 primary field linking the free and fixed boundary conditions. Secondly we use Schrieffer-Wolff method to construct effective Hamiltonians both near the UV and IR fixed points.Comment: 38 pages; v.2 minor changes, to appear in JHE

Renormalization group defects for boundary flows

Recently Gaiotto [1] considered conformal defects which produce an expansion of infrared local fields in terms of the ultraviolet ones for a given renormalization group flow. In this paper we propose that for a boundary RG flow in two dimensions there exist boundary condition changing fields (RG defect fields) linking the UV and the IR conformal boundary conditions which carry similar information on the expansion of boundary fields at the fixed points. We propose an expression for a pairing between IR and UV operators in terms of a four-point function with two insertions of the RG defect fields. For the boundary flows in minimal models triggered by \psi_{13} perturbation we make an explicit proposal for the RG defect fields. We check our conjecture by a number of calculations done for the example of (p,2)--> (p-1,1)+(p+1,1) flows.Comment: 1+23 pages, 2 Latex figures; v.3: minor corrections throughout the text, references adde

Gradient formula for the beta-function of 2d quantum field theory

We give a non-perturbative proof of a gradient formula for beta functions of two-dimensional quantum field theories. The gradient formula has the form \partial_{i}c = - (g_{ij}+\Delta g_{ij} +b_{ij})\beta^{j} where \beta^{j} are the beta functions, c and g_{ij} are the Zamolodchikov c-function and metric, b_{ij} is an antisymmetric tensor introduced by H. Osborn and \Delta g_{ij} is a certain metric correction. The formula is derived under the assumption of stress-energy conservation and certain conditions on the infrared behaviour the most significant of which is the condition that the large distance limit of the field theory does not exhibit spontaneously broken global conformal symmetry. Being specialized to non-linear sigma models this formula implies a one-to-one correspondence between renormalization group fixed points and critical points of c.Comment: LaTex file, 31 pages, no figures; v.2 referencing corrected in the introductio

General properties of the boundary renormalization group flow for supersymmetric systems in 1+1 dimensions

We consider the general supersymmetric one-dimensional quantum system with boundary, critical in the bulk but not at the boundary. The renormalization group flow on the space of boundary conditions is generated by the boundary beta functions \beta^{a}(\lambda) for the boundary coupling constants \lambda^{a}. We prove a gradient formula \partial\ln z/\partial\lambda^{a} =-g_{ab}^{S}\beta^{b} where z(\lambda) is the boundary partition function at given temperature T=1/\beta, and g_{ab}^{S}(\lambda) is a certain positive-definite metric on the space of supersymmetric boundary conditions. The proof depends on canonical ultraviolet behavior at the boundary. Any system whose short distance behavior is governed by a fixed point satisfies this requirement. The gradient formula implies that the boundary energy, -\partial\ln z/\partial\beta = -T\beta^{a}\partial_{a}\ln z, is nonnegative. Equivalently, the quantity \ln z(\lambda) decreases under the renormalization group flow.Comment: 21 pages, Late

On asymptotic behaviour in truncated conformal space approach

The Truncated conformal space approach (TCSA) is a numerical technique for finding finite size spectrum of Hamiltonians in quantum field theory described as perturbations of conformal field theories. The truncation errors of the method have been systematically studied near the UV fixed point (when the characteristic energy related to the coupling is less than the truncation cutoff) where a good theoretical understanding has been achieved. However numerically the method demonstrated a good agreement with other methods for much larger values of the coupling when the RG flow approaches a new fixed point in the infrared. In the present paper we investigate this regime for a number of boundary RG flows testing the leading exponent and truncation errors. We also study the flows beyond the first fixed point which have been observed numerically but yet lack a theoretical understanding. We show that while in some models such flows approximate reversed physical RG flows, in other models the spectrum approaches a stable regime that does not correspond to any local boundary condition. Furthermore we find that in general the flows beyond the first fixed point are very sensitive to modifications of the truncation scheme.Comment: v2: presentation restructured, general considerations are put forward into section 2, section on bulk flows removed, quality of all pictures and referencing improved; 40 pages, 22 figures, 11 tables; to appear in JHE

Open topological defects and boundary RG flows

In the context of two-dimensional rational conformal field theories we consider topological junctions of topological defect lines with boundary conditions. We refer to such junctions as open topological defects. For a relevant boundary operator on a conformal boundary condition we consider a commutation relation with an open defect obtained by passing the junction point through the boundary operator. We show that when there is an open defect that commutes or anti-commutes with the boundary operator there are interesting implications for the boundary RG flows triggered by this operator. The end points of the flow must satisfy certain constraints which, in essence, require the end points to admit junctions with the same open defects. Furthermore, the open defects in the infrared must generate a subring under fusion that is isomorphic to the analogous subring of the original boundary condition. We illustrate these constraints by a number of explicit examples in Virasoro minimal models.Comment: 26 pages; v.2: section 3 rewritten and now includes a detailed discussion of RG counterterms, new example added at the end of section 4.2, extended discussion of the \psi_1,2 boundary flow in the Pentacritical model, minor improvements throughout the tex

Entropy of conformal perturbation defects

We consider perturbation defects obtained by perturbing a 2D conformal field theory (CFT) by a relevant operator on a half-plane. If the perturbed bulk theory flows to an infrared fixed point described by another CFT, the defect flows to a conformal defect between the ultraviolet and infrared fixed point CFTs. For short bulk renormalization group flows connecting two fixed points which are close in theory space we find a universal perturbative formula for the boundary entropy of the corresponding conformal perturbation defect. We compare the value of the boundary entropy that our formula gives for the flows between nearby Virasoro minimal models Mm with the boundary entropy of the defect constructed by Gaiotto in [1] and find a match at the first two orders in the 1/m expansion.Comment: 24 pages, 2 figure

Open string radiation from decaying FZZT branes

In this paper we continue studying the decay of unstable FZZT branes initiated in [1],[2]. The mass of tachyonic mode in this model can be chosen arbitrarily small and we use it as a perturbative parameter. In [2] a time-dependent boundary conformal field theory (BCFT) describing the decay process was studied and it was shown that in a certain sense this BCFT interpolates between two stationary BCFT's corresponding to the UV and IR fixed points of the associated RG flow. In the present work we find in the leading order vertex operators of the time-dependent BCFT. We identify the "in" and "out" vertex operators assigned to the UV and IR fixed points and compute the related Bogolyubov coefficients. We show that there is a codimension one subspace of the out-going states for which pair creation amplitudes are independent of the initial wave function of the tachyonic mode. We demonstrate that such amplitudes can be computed within the framework of first quantized open string theory via suitably defined string two-point functions. We also evaluate a three point function which we interpret as an amplitude for string triplet creation due to interaction. Some peculiarities of scattering amplitudes in the presence of tachyonic modes in the far past are discussed.Comment: 1+39 pages, Latex; v.2: minor improvements all over the tex