English

Thermal one-point functions and single-valued polylogarithms

High Energy Physics - Theory 2021-06-30 v1

Abstract

I point out that the thermal one-point functions of a pair of relevant operators in massive free QFTs, in odd dimensions and in the presence of an imaginary chemical potential for a U(1) global charge, are given by certain classes of single-valued polylogarithms. This result is verified by a direct calculation using the thermal OPE. The complex argument of the polylogarithms parametrize a two-dimensional subspace of relevant deformations of generalised free CFTs, while the rank of the polylogarithms is related to the dimension d. This may be compared with the well-known representation of single-valued polylogarithms as multiloop Feynman amplitudes. As an example, the thermal one-point function of the U(1) charge in d-dimensions generalises the thermal average of the twist operator in a pair of harmonic oscillators and is given by the well-known conformal ladder graphs in four dimensions.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2105.03530,
  title  = {Thermal one-point functions and single-valued polylogarithms},
  author = {Anastasios C. Petkou},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2105.03530},
  year   = {2021}
}

Comments

11 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-24T01:53:35.648Z