English

The $\mathcal{W}$-algebra bootstrap of 6d $\mathcal{N}=(2,0)$ theories

High Energy Physics - Theory 2025-10-24 v5

Abstract

6d (2,0) SCFTs of type g\mathfrak{g} have protected subsectors that were conjectured in arxiv:1404.1079 to be captured by Wg\mathcal{W}_\mathfrak{g} algebras. We write down the crossing equations for mixed four-point functions Sk1Sk2Sk3Sk4\langle S_{k_1} S_{k_2}S_{k_3}S_{k_4}\rangle of 1/2-BPS operators SkiS_{k_i} in 6d (2,0) theories and detail how a certain twist reduces this system to a 2d meromorphic CFT multi-correlator bootstrap problem. We identify the relevant 6d (2,0) W\mathcal{W}-algebras of type g={AN1,DN}\mathfrak{g} = \{A_{N-1},D_N\} as truncations of W1+\mathcal{W}_{1+\infty} and solve OPE associativity conditions for their structure constants, both using OPEdefs\texttt{OPEdefs} and the holomorphic bootstrap of arxiv:1503.07111. With this, we solve the multi-correlator bootstrap for twisted 6d four-point correlators Fk1k2k3k4\mathcal{F}_{k_1k_2k_3k_4} involving all SkiS_{k_i} up to {ki}=4\{k_i\}=4 and extract closed-form expressions for 6d OPE coefficients. We describe the implications of our CFT data on conformal Regge trajectories of the (2,0) theories and finally, demonstrate the consistency of our results with protected higher-derivative corrections to graviton scattering in M-theory on AdS7×S4/ZoAdS_7\times S^4/\mathbb{Z}_\mathfrak{o}.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2506.08094,
  title  = {The $\mathcal{W}$-algebra bootstrap of 6d $\mathcal{N}=(2,0)$ theories},
  author = {Mitchell Woolley},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2506.08094},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

55 pages, 1 Mathematica notebook. v1: Comments are welcome. v2: References added and submitted for publication. v3: Added clarifications of 6d data extraction and the filtration ambiguity, and more references. v4: Matches published version. v5: Another clarification