No Arabic abstract
We consider the strong coupling limit of 4-point functions of heavy operators in N=4 SYM dual to strings with no spin in AdS. We restrict our discussion for operators inserted on a line. The string computation factorizes into a state-dependent sphere part and a universal AdS contribution which depends only on the dimensions of the operators and the cross ratios. We use the integrability of the AdS string equations to compute the AdS part for operators of arbitrary conformal dimensions. The solution takes the form of TBA-like integral equations with the minimal AdS string-action computed by a corresponding free-energy-like functional. These TBA-like equations stem from a peculiar system of functional equations which we call a chi-system. In principle one could use the same method to solve for the AdS contribution in the N-point function. An interesting feature of the solution is that it encodes multiple string configurations corresponding to different classical saddle-points. The discrete data that parameterizes these solutions enters through the analog of the chemical-potentials in the TBA-like equations. Finally, for operators dual to strings spinning in the same equator in S^5 (i.e. BPS operators of the same type) the sphere part is simple to compute. In this case (which is generically neither extremal nor protected) we can construct the complete, strong-coupling 4-point function.
The most general operator product expansion in conformal field theory is obtained using the embedding space formalism and a new uplift for general quasi-primary operators. The uplift introduced here, based on quasi-primary operators with spinor indices only and standard projection operators, allows a unified treatment of all quasi-primary operators irrespective of their Lorentz group irreducible representations. This unified treatment works at the level of the operator product expansion and hence applies to all correlation functions. A very useful differential operator appearing in the operator product expansion is established and its action on appropriate products of embedding space coordinates is explicitly computed. This computation leads to tensorial generalizations of the usual Exton function for all correlation functions. Several important identities and contiguous relations are also demonstrated for these new tensorial functions. From the operator product expansion all correlation functions for all quasi-primary operators, irrespective of their Lorentz group irreducible representations, can be computed recursively in a systematic way. The resulting answer can be expressed in terms of tensor structures that carry all the Lorentz group information and linear combinations of the new tensorial functions. Finally, a summary of the well-defined rules allowing the computation of all correlation functions constructively is presented.
We present a systematic method to expand in components four dimensional superconformal multiplets. The results cover all possible $mathcal{N} = 1$ multiplets and some cases of interest for $mathcal{N} = 2$. As an application of the formalism we prove that certain $mathcal{N} = 2$ spinning chiral operators (also known as exotic chiral primaries) do not admit a consistent three-point function with the stress tensor and therefore cannot be present in any local SCFT. This extends a previous proof in the literature which only applies to certain classes of theories. To each superdescendant we associate a superconformally covariant differential operator, which can then be applied to any correlator in superspace. In the case of three-point functions, we introduce a convenient representation of the differential operators that considerably simplifies their action. As a consequence it is possible to efficiently obtain the linear relations between the OPE coefficients of the operators in the same superconformal multiplet and in turn streamline the computation of superconformal blocks. We also introduce a Mathematica package to work with four dimensional superspace.
We develop a general method of computing the contribution of the vertex operators to the semi-classical correlation functions of heavy string states, based on the state-operator correspondence and the integrable structure of the system. Our method requires only the knowledge of the local behavior of the saddle point configuration around each vertex insertion point and can be applied to cases where the precise forms of the vertex operators are not known. As an important application, we compute the contributions of the vertex operators to the three-point functions of the large spin limit of the Gubser-Klebanov-Polyakov (GKP) strings in $AdS_3$ spacetime, left unevaluated in our previous work [arXiv:1110.3949] which initiated such a study. Combining with the finite part of the action already computed previously and with the newly evaluated divergent part of the action, we obtain finite three-point functions with the expected dependence of the target space boundary coordinates on the dilatation charge and the spin.
There exist several theoretical motivations for primordial correlation functions (such as the power spectrum) to contain oscillations as a logarithmic function of comoving momentum k. While these features are commonly searched for in k-space, an alternative is to use angular space; that is, search for correlations between the directional vectors of observation. We develop tools to efficiently compute the angular correlations based on a stationary phase approximation and examine several example oscillations in the primordial power spectrum, bispectrum, and trispectrum. We find that logarithmically-periodic oscillations are essentially featureless and therefore difficult to detect using the standard correlator, though others might be feasible.
In this paper we study the four-point correlation function of the energy-momentum supermultiplet in theories with N=4 superconformal symmetry in four dimensions. We present a compact form of all component correlators as an invariant of a particular abelian subalgebra of the N=4 superconformal algebra. This invariant is unique up to a single function of the conformal cross-ratios which is fixed by comparison with the correlation function of the lowest half-BPS scalar operators. Our analysis is independent of the dynamics of a specific theory, in particular it is valid in N=4 super Yang-Mills theory for any value of the coupling constant. We discuss in great detail a subclass of component correlators, which is a crucial ingredient for the recent study of charge-flow correlations in conformal field theories. We compute the latter explicitly and elucidate the origin of the interesting relations among different types of flow correlations previously observed in arXiv:1309.1424.