Contributor info: Prof. Lorenzo Di Pietro

Lorenzo Di Pietro, Edoardo Lauria, Pierluigi Niro

SciPost Phys. 16, 090 (2024) · published 3 April 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

We construct unitary, stable, and interacting conformal boundary conditions for a free massless scalar in four dimensions by coupling it to edge modes living on a boundary. The boundary theories we consider are bosonic and fermionic QED$_3$ with $N_f$ flavors and a Chern-Simons term at level $k$, in the large-$N_f$ limit with fixed $k/N_f$. We find that interacting boundary conditions only exist when $k≠ 0$. To obtain this result we compute the $\beta$ functions of the classically marginal couplings at the first non-vanishing order in the large-$N_f$ expansion, and to all orders in $k/N_f$ and in the couplings. To check vacuum stability we also compute the large-$N_f$ effective potential. We compare our results with the the known conformal bootstrap bounds.

Francesco Benini, Christian Copetti, Lorenzo Di Pietro

SciPost Phys. 14, 019 (2023) · published 14 February 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

We consider toy models of holography arising from 3d Chern-Simons theory. In this context a duality to an ensemble average over 2d CFTs has been recently proposed. We put forward an alternative approach in which, rather than summing over bulk geometries, one gauges a one-form global symmetry of the bulk theory. This accomplishes two tasks: it ensures that the bulk theory has no global symmetries, as expected for a theory of quantum gravity, and it makes the partition function on spacetimes with boundaries coincide with that of a modular-invariant 2d CFT on the boundary. In particular, on wormhole geometries one finds a factorized answer for the partition function. In the case of non-Abelian Chern-Simons theories, the relevant one-form symmetry is non-invertible, and its "gauging" corresponds to the condensation of a Lagrangian anyon.

Lorenzo Di Pietro, Edoardo Lauria, Pierluigi Niro

SciPost Phys. 11, 050 (2021) · published 8 September 2021 | Toggle abstract · pdf

We consider a 4d scalar field coupled to large $N$ free or critical $O(N)$ vector models, either bosonic or fermionic, on a 3d boundary. We compute the $\beta$ function of the classically marginal bulk/boundary interaction at the first non-trivial order in the large $N$ expansion and exactly in the coupling. Starting with the free (critical) vector model at weak coupling, we find a fixed point at infinite coupling in which the boundary theory is the critical (free) vector model and the bulk decouples. We show that a strong/weak duality relates one description of the renormalization group flow to another one in which the free and the critical vector models are exchanged. We then consider the theory with an additional Maxwell field in the bulk, which also gives decoupling limits with gauged vector models on the boundary.