It is a long-standing conjecture that any CFT with a large central charge and a large gap $Delta_{text{gap}}$ in the spectrum of higher-spin single-trace operators must be dual to a local effective field theory in AdS. We prove a sharp form of this c
onjecture by deriving numerical bounds on bulk Wilson coefficients in terms of $Delta_{text{gap}}$ using the conformal bootstrap. Our bounds exhibit the scaling in $Delta_{text{gap}}$ expected from dimensional analysis in the bulk. Our main tools are dispersive sum rules that provide a dictionary between CFT dispersion relations and S-matrix dispersion relations in appropriate limits. This dictionary allows us to apply recently-developed flat-space methods to construct positive CFT functionals. We show how AdS$_{4}$ naturally resolves the infrared divergences present in 4D flat-space bounds. Our results imply the validity of twice-subtracted dispersion relations for any S-matrix arising from the flat-space limit of AdS/CFT.
We reconsider the problem of bounding higher derivative couplings in consistent weakly coupled gravitational theories, starting from general assumptions about analyticity and Regge growth of the S-matrix. Higher derivative couplings are expected to b
e of order one in the units of the UV cutoff. Our approach justifies this expectation and allows to prove precise bounds on the order one coefficients. Our main tool are dispersive sum rules for the S-matrix. We overcome the difficulties presented by the graviton pole by measuring couplings at small impact parameter, rather than in the forward limit. We illustrate the method in theories containing a massless scalar coupled to gravity, and in theories with maximal supersymmetry.
We formulate a series of conjectures relating the geometry of conformal manifolds to the spectrum of local operators in conformal field theories in $d>2$ spacetime dimensions. We focus on conformal manifolds with limiting points at infinite distance
with respect to the Zamolodchikov metric. Our central conjecture is that all theories at infinite distance possess an emergent higher-spin symmetry, generated by an infinite tower of currents whose anomalous dimensions vanish exponentially in the distance. Stated geometrically, the diameter of a non-compact conformal manifold must diverge logarithmically in the higher-spin gap. In the holographic context our conjectures are related to the Distance Conjecture in the swampland program. Interpreted gravitationally, they imply that approaching infinite distance in moduli space at fixed AdS radius, a tower of higher-spin fields becomes massless at an exponential rate that is bounded from below in Planck units. We discuss further implications for conformal manifolds of superconformal field theories in three and four dimensions.
We revisit the leading irrelevant deformation of $mathcal{N}=4$ Super Yang-Mills theory that preserves sixteen supercharges. We consider the deformed theory on $S^3 times mathbb{R}$. We are able to write a closed form expression of the classical acti
on thanks to a formalism that realizes eight supercharges off shell. We then investigate integrability of the spectral problem, by studying the spin-chain Hamiltonian in planar perturbation theory. While there are some structural indications that a suitably defined deformation might preserve integrability, we are unable to settle this question by our two-loop calculation; indeed up to this order we recover the integrable Hamiltonian of undeformed $mathcal{N}=4$ SYM due to accidental symmetry enhancement. We also comment on the holographic interpretation of the theory.
We develop an analytic approach to the four-point crossing equation in CFT, for general spacetime dimension. In a unitary CFT, the crossing equation (for, say, the s- and t-channel expansions) can be thought of as a vector equation in an infinite-dim
ensional space of complex analytic functions in two variables, which satisfy a boundedness condition in the u-channel Regge limit. We identify a useful basis for this space of functions, consisting of the set of s- and t-channel conformal blocks of double-twist operators in mean field theory. We describe two independent algorithms to construct the dual basis of linear functionals, and work out explicitly many examples. Our basis of functionals appears to be closely related to the CFT dispersion relation recently derived by Carmi and Caron-Huot.
We study the second-order phase transition in the $d$-dimensional Ising model with long-range interactions decreasing as a power of the distance $1/r^{d+s}$. For $s$ below some known value $s_*$, the transition is described by a conformal field theor
y without a local stress tensor operator, with critical exponents varying continuously as functions of $s$. At $s=s_*$, the phase transition crosses over to the short-range universality class. While the location $s_*$ of this crossover has been known for 40 years, its physics has not been fully understood, the main difficulty being that the standard description of the long-range critical point is strongly coupled at the crossover. In this paper we propose another field-theoretic description which, on the contrary, is weakly coupled near the crossover. We use this description to clarify the nature of the crossover and make predictions about the critical exponents. That the same long-range critical point can be reached from two different UV descriptions provides a new example of infrared duality.
