A multipoint conformal block chain in $d$ dimensions
Abstract
Conformal blocks play a central role in CFTs as the basic, theory-independent building blocks. However, only limited results are available concerning multipoint blocks associated with the global conformal group. In this paper, we systematically work out the -dimensional -point global conformal blocks (for arbitrary and ) for external and exchanged scalar operators in the so-called comb channel. We use kinematic aspects of holography and previously worked out higher-point AdS propagator identities to first obtain the geodesic diagram representation for the -point block. Subsequently, upon taking a particular double-OPE limit, we obtain an explicit power series expansion for the -point block expressed in terms of powers of conformal cross-ratios. Interestingly, the expansion coefficient is written entirely in terms of Pochhammer symbols and factors of the generalized hypergeometric function , for which we provide a holographic explanation. This generalizes the results previously obtained in the literature for . We verify the results explicitly in embedding space using conformal Casimir equations.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1911.09190,
title = {A multipoint conformal block chain in $d$ dimensions},
author = {Sarthak Parikh},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1911.09190},
year = {2020}
}
Comments
35 pages + appendices + references, several figures. Mathematica notebook containing the main result included as an ancillary file