Ebook: EPFL Lectures on Conformal Field Theory in D ≥ 3 Dimensions
Author: Slava Rychkov (auth.)
- Tags: Quantum Field Theories String Theory, Elementary Particles Quantum Field Theory, Mathematical Applications in the Physical Sciences
- Series: SpringerBriefs in Physics
- Year: 2017
- Publisher: Springer International Publishing
- Edition: 1
- Language: English
- pdf
This primer develops Conformal Field Theory (CFT) from scratch, whereby CFT is viewed as any conformally-invariant theory that describes a fixed point of a renormalization group flow in quantum field theory.
The book is divided into four lectures: Lecture 1 addresses the physical foundations of conformal invariance, while Lecture 2 examines the constraints imposed by conformal symmetry on the correlation functions of local operators, presented using the so-called projective null cone – a procedure also known as the embedding formalism. In turn, Lecture 3 focuses on the radial quantization and the operator product expansion, while Lecture 4 offers a very brief introduction to the conformal bootstrap.
Derived from course-based notes, these lectures are intended as a first point of entry to this topic for Master and PhD students alike.