Minho Aveiro Porto
  • Boundary Conformal Field Theory
Universidades:
Universidade do Minho
Universidade de Aveiro
Universidade do Porto
 

Curricular Unit

Advanced Physics Topics 1

Module

Boundary Conformal Field Theory

Type

Tutorial: Reading and Study assignment

Contact hours

18

Professor/Researcher in charge

Miguel Costa and João Penedones , U. Porto

Summary of Contents

A boundary conformal field theory (BCFT) is a conformal field theory (CFT) in the presence of a boundary. BCFTs describe surface phenomena in systems near criticality, with surface critical exponents related to the conformal dimensions of the boundary operators. In string theory, two-dimensional worldsheet BCFTs are interpreted as D-branes. 

The goal of this project is to summarize the state of the art regarding BCFTs. The focus should be on comparing what is know for general spacetime dimension (d>2) to what is known in the well established two dimensional case (d=2).

The best reference for d>2 is "The Bootstrap Program for Boundary CFT_d"
Pedro Liendo, Leonardo Rastelli, Balt C. van Rees Published in JHEP 1307 (2013) 113
e-Print: arXiv:1210.4258 [hep-th]. A good review about the d=2 case is "Boundary conformal field theory” John L. Cardy , e-Print: hep-th/0411189.

Evaluation

The student is expected to present a written report summarizing his understanding of the subject, followed by oral presentation.

References

The Bootstrap Program for Boundary CFT_d, Pedro Liendo, Leonardo Rastelli, Balt C. van Rees P JHEP 1307 (2013) 113, arXiv:1210.4258 [hep-th]

Boundary conformal field theory. John L. Cardy, e-Print: hep-th/0411189