Speaker: Barak Gabai (Ecole Polytechnique, Lausanne)

Title: Bootstrapping Smooth Conformal Defects

Abstract: The expectation value of a smooth conformal line defect in a CFT is a conformal invariant functional of its path in space-time. In a recent publication, we developed a bootstrap method for studying such lines and applied it to defects in large N Chern-Simons matter theories. In these cases, the line bootstrap is based on three minimal assumptions — conformal invariance of the line defect, large N factorization, and the spectrum of the two lowest-lying operators at the end of the line. I will explain how these assumptions lead to a (unique) solution of the one-dimensional CFT on the line and how to systematically compute corrections to the defect expectation value in an expansion around the straight line. I will also comment on the potential application of our method to other theories.

This talk will be in hybrid mode via zoom, please contact the seminar organisers to obtain the password.

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