English

Momentum-space conformal blocks on the light cone

High Energy Physics - Theory 2020-12-29 v4

Abstract

We study the momentum-space 4-point correlation function of identical scalar operators in conformal field theory. Working specifically with null momenta, we show that its imaginary part admits an expansion in conformal blocks. The blocks are polynomials in the cosine of the scattering angle, with degree \ell corresponding to the spin of the intermediate operator. The coefficients of these polynomials are obtained in a closed-form expression for arbitrary spacetime dimension d>2d > 2. If the scaling dimension of the intermediate operator is large, the conformal block reduces to a Gegenbauer polynomial C(d2)/2\mathcal{C}_\ell^{(d-2)/2}. If on the contrary the scaling dimension saturates the unitarity bound, the block is different Gegenbauer polynomial C(d3)/2\mathcal{C}_\ell^{(d-3)/2}. These results are then used as an inversion formula to compute OPE coefficients in a free theory example.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1807.07003,
  title  = {Momentum-space conformal blocks on the light cone},
  author = {Marc Gillioz},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1807.07003},
  year   = {2020}
}

Comments

30 pages, 6 figures & 1 table. v2: references added. v3: relation to partial wave expansion added, matches published version. v4: typo corrected