Conformal symmetry

Conformal transformation are angle preserving.

Fig. 1.1

i.e Conformal transformation are co-ordinate transformations that changes the

size without changing the shape.

The basic definition of a conformal transformation is a transformation of co-

ordinate

xμ → x'μ such that infinitesimal line elements are invariant up to a

local scale factor
2 2 2
d s ' =Ω ( x ) d s (0)
where d s 2=η μν dx μ dx ν

With η μν=(−1,1 …1)

For Ω =1 these reduces to rotational and translational with also Lorentz
transformation.

The conformal group in d ≥3 dimensions if finite dimensional. It encompasses

Poincare transformation(Lorentz transformation with translation), dilations and
special conformal transformation.

Special conformal transformation is basically inversion followed by translation

followed by inversion.

x μ −b μ x μ
xμ → x ' μ = (0)
1−2 b . x +b2 x 2
For infinitesimal b μ it becomes

x μ → x ' μ =x μ−bμ x 2+ 2b . x x μ (0)

With this special conformal transformation square line element transforms as

d x 2 → ( 1+ 4 b . x ) d x 2 (0)
This is basically local rescaling of metric.

The lie algebra generators of conformal group are

i p μ=∂ μ (0)
iD=x ∂μ
μ
(0)
i L μν=(x μ ∂ ν −x ν ∂ μ ) (0)
ν
i K μ=(2 x μ x ∂ν −x ∂μ )
2
(0)
These generators generate translations, dilations, Lorentz and special conformal
transformations respectively. The lie bracket or commutation relation of the above
generators are as follows

[ Lμν , L λρ ]=i(η μλ Lνρ−ημρ η νλ−η νλ Lμρ +ηνρ Lμλ ) (0)

[ Lμν , P λ ]=i( ημλ Pν −ηνλ P μ ) (0)
[ Pμ , D ]=−i P μ (0)
[ K μ , D ]=i K μ (0)
 [ Pμ , K ν ]=−2 iη μν D−2 i L μν (0)
[ Lμν , K λ ]=iη λμ K ν −i η λν K μ (0)
And all other commutation relation are zero. Among these commutation relation
(11) and (12) act as raising and lowering operator for D.

i.e [ D , P μ ]=i P μ (0)

[ D , K μ ]=−i K μ (0)

Primaries and descendents

In a rotationally-invariant QFT, local operators at the origin transform in
irreducible representations of the rotation group,
[ Lμν ,O ( 0 ) ] =i Rm O(0) (0)
With Rm a spin-l representation of Lμν .

In scale invariant theory, it is natural to diagonalize the dilation operators acting at

the origin,
[ D ,O ( 0 ) ]=i ΔO(0) (0)
The eigen value Δ is dimension of operator O, it is also called scaling dimension.
As stated above that K μ is lowering operator for dimension, thus
[D ,[K μ , O ( 0 ) ] ]=i ( Δ−1 ) [K μ , O ( 0 ) ] (0)
Thus, given an operator O(0), we can repeatedly act with K μ to obtain operator,
K μ 1 K μ 2 … . K μn O ( 0 ) with arbitrarily lower dimension. Because dimension are
bounded from below for any physical theory, them there must exist an operators s.t
[ K μ , O ( 0 ) ]=0 (0)
Such operators are called as “primary”.
Given a primary, we can construct operators of higher dimension, called as
descendants, by acting with momentum generators, as momentum generator act
like raising operator for dimension.
On=P μ 1 … Pμn O(0) (0)
Conformal correlators
Now we turn our attention to constraints imposed by conformal invariance. We
begin by considering the observables of our theory. The quantities of interest in
conformal field theories are N-point correlation function of fields(scalar).
Conformal invariance determines the form of the two point function in terms of the
scale dimension and spin.

Firstly, by rotation and translation invariance, we must have

⟨ O1 ( x ) O2 ( y ) ⟩ =f (|x− y|) (0)

For some function f .

[ D ,O ( x ) ]=( x μ ∂ μ + Δ ) O( x) (0)
Equation (23) is enough to fix two point functions of scalars up to a constant. This
gives

C (0)
f (|x − y|)= Δ 1+ Δ 2
|x− y|
Thus scale invariance fixes the two point correlation function up to a constant.
For being invariant under conformal group it satisfy much stronger condition and
two point correlation function becomes

C δ 12 (0)
⟨ O1 ( x ) O2 ( y ) ⟩ = 2 Δ1
|x− y|
We can treat three-point functions in a similar manner. Invariance under conformal
group force the three-point function to have the form
f (0)
⟨ O1 ( x 1 ) O2 ( x 2 ) O3 ( x 3 ) ⟩= x Δ1 + Δ2− Δ3 x Δ 2+123
Δ 3− Δ1 Δ 3+ Δ 1−Δ 2
x
12 23 31

Where x 12=|x1 −x2| , with f 123 constant.

Moving to the 4point function and considering four identical fields for simplicity.
Now with four points, there are nontrivial conformally invariant combinations
of the points called “conformal cross-ratios."
2
x 12 x 34
2 2 2
x 23 x 14 (0)
u= 2 2
,v= 2 2
x x 13 24 x x
13 24

Four-point functions can depend nontrivially on the cross-ratios. For a scalar ϕ

with dimension Δ , the formula is
g(u , v )
⟨ ϕ ( x 1 ) ϕ ( x 2 ) ϕ ( x 3 ) ϕ ( x 4 ) ⟩ = x 2 Δ x2 Δ (0)
12 34

Where g(u , v ) is some function of cross-ratio u and v .

For the moment let us notice a functional constraint on g(u , v ) which comes
from the crossing symmetry of 4 point function. If we interchange 2 ↔ 4, we get
g( ~
u,~
v) (0)
⟨ ϕ ( x 1 ) ϕ ( x 2 ) ϕ ( x 3 ) ϕ ( x 4 ) ⟩ = x 2 Δ x2 Δ
14 23

Where now g( ~
u,~
v) depends on the conformally invariant cross-ratios calculated
with the interchanged indices
~
u=v , ~v=u (0)
From (29) and (30) it must be
1 1 (0)
2Δ2Δ
g ( u , v )= 2 Δ 2 Δ g( v , u)
x x 34
12 x 14 x23

Multiplying by x 214Δ x 223Δ , we find that g ( u , v ) must satisfy

v
Δ
(0)
( ) g ( u , v ) =g (v , u)
u
Similarly with interchange 3 ↔ 4 we have
(0)
g ( uv , 1v )=g(u , v )
Thus we can see that the 4point function must be given by a simple expression
times a function of the conformally invariant cross-ratios is an enormous reduction
of the functional freedom, although not as large as for the 3point functions where
the functional form was completely fixed.
Radial quantization and Operator state Correspondence:
In general, we should to choose quantization that respect symmetries. In a scale-
invariant theory, it's natural to foliate spacetime with spheres around the origin and
consider evolving states from smaller spheres to larger spheres using the dilatation
operator (fig 2.1). This is called “radial quantization."

Fig 2.1 In radial quantization, states live on spheres, and we evolve from one state
to another with dilation operator.
We will generate states living on the sphere by inserting operators inside the
sphere. Some simple cases are:
1. The vacuum state ⃓
0⟩ corresponds to inserting nothing. The dilatation eigenvalue,
the “radial quantization is zero for this state.
2. Each operator inserted at origin defines a state
|Δ ⟩=O(0)|0 ⟩ (0)
This generated state will have energy equal to the scaling dimension Δ .
D| Δ ⟩=DO (0)|0 ⟩=[ D , O(0)]|0 ⟩+ O(0)D|0 ⟩ (0)
¿ i ΔO (0)|0 ⟩=i Δ| Δ ⟩ (0)

When the momentum operator Pμ acts on |Δ ⟩ , it raises the energy by one

unit. Algebraically, this is a consequence of
[ D , P μ ]=i P μ (0)
Schematically
|Δ ⟩ Pμ|Δ +1 ⟩ Pν |Δ+ 2 ⟩ … … . . (0)
→ →

These states, associated with the derivatives of primary operator O, are called
descendant states.
On the other hand, the operator K μ lowers the dimension by 1, since
[ D , K μ ]=−i K μ (0)
Thus
0 K μ|Δ ⟩ K μ| Δ+1 ⟩ … …. (0)
← ←

This allows us to justify the existence of primary operators, considered up to now

as an axiom. Start with any local operator and keep hitting it with K μ . Assuming
that dimensions are bounded from below, eventually we must hit zero, and this will
give us a primary.
We saw that the states generated by inserting a primary operator at the origin have
a definite scaling dimension Δ and are annihilated by K μ . We can go

backwards as well: given a state of energy Δ which is annihilated by K μ , we

can construct a local primary operator of dimension Δ . This is called Operator-

State correspondence: states are in one-to-one correspondence with local operators.

Operator Product Expansion
Because every state is a linear combination of primaries and descendants, we can
decompose this state as
Oi ( x ) O j (0)|0 ⟩=∑ C ijk ( x , P ) Ok (0)|0 ⟩ (0)
k

Where k runs over primary operators and Cijk ( x , P) is an operator that

packages together primaries and descendants. Using state-operator correspondence,
we write
Oi ( x 1 ) O j ( x 2 )=∑ C ijk ( x12 , ∂2 ) O k (x2 )(OPE) (0)
k

OPE only holds if no operator is inserted at | y|<|x| .

We use OPE to reduce 3-point function to sum over 2-point function
 ⟨ O1 ( x 1 ) O2 ( x 2 ) O3 ( x 3 ) ⟩=∑ C12 k D ( x 12 ,∂2 ) ⟨ O2 ( x 2) O3 ( x3 )⟩ (0)
k
C 123 (0)
Δ 1+ Δ2− Δ 3 Δ2 +Δ 3− Δ1 Δ 3+ Δ 1−Δ 2
=C123 D (x12 ∂2) D ( x12 ∂2 ) ⟨ O 2 ( x 2 ) O 3 ( x 3 ) ⟩
x 12 x 23 x 31
1 1 (0)
x
Δ 1+ Δ2− Δ 3
12x x
Δ2 +Δ 3− Δ1
23 x
Δ 3+ Δ 1−Δ 2
31
=D ( x12 , ∂2 )
( )
2 Δ3
23

Thus form of D ( x12 ∂2 ) can be fixed by related 2-and 3-point function.

Any n-point function can be reduced to sums of 2-and 3-point functions via OPE.
Example:
1 (0)
⟨ O1 ( x 1 ) O2 ( x 2 ) O3 ( x 3 ) O4 ( x 4 )⟩=∑ Ck12 C k34 D ( x12 , x 34, ∂ x , ∂ x )
k
2 4
( )
x 224Δ k