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Exact calculations beyond charge neutrality in timelike Liouville field theory

Mathematical Physics 2026-02-10 v2 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology High Energy Physics - Theory math.MP Probability

Abstract

Timelike Liouville field theory (also known as imaginary Liouville theory or imaginary Gaussian multiplicative chaos) is expected to describe two-dimensional quantum gravity in a positive-curvature regime, but its path integral is not a probability measure and rigorous exact computations are currently available only in the charge-neutral (integer screening) case. In this paper we show that at the special coupling b=1/2b=1/\sqrt{2}, the Coulomb-gas expansion of the timelike path integral becomes explicitly computable beyond charge neutrality. The reason is that the nn-fold integrals generated by the interaction acquire a Vandermonde/determinantal structure at b=1/2b=1/\sqrt{2}, which allows exact evaluation in terms of classical special functions. We derive Mellin-Barnes type representations (involving the Barnes GG-function and, in a three-point case, Gauss hypergeometric functions) for the zero- and one-point functions, for an antipodal two-point function, and for a three-point function with a resonant insertion α2=b\alpha_2=b. We then address the subtle zero-mode integration: after a Gaussian regularization we obtain an explicit renormalized partition function C(1/2,μ)=e(4π2μ)1C(1/\sqrt{2},\mu)=e(4\pi\sqrt2 \mu)^{-1}, identify distributional limits in the physically relevant regime αj=12Q+iPj\alpha_j=\frac{1}{2}Q+\mathrm{i} P_j, and compare with the Hankel-contour prescription recently proposed in the physics literature. These results provide the first rigorously controlled family of exact calculations in timelike Liouville theory outside charge neutrality.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2601.19097,
  title  = {Exact calculations beyond charge neutrality in timelike Liouville field theory},
  author = {Sourav Chatterjee},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2601.19097},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

100 pages, 2 figures. Minor revisions