Sandipan Kundu

Bio: Sandipan Kundu is an academic researcher from Johns Hopkins University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Conformal field theory & AdS/CFT correspondence. The author has an hindex of 25, co-authored 66 publications receiving 2218 citations. Previous affiliations of Sandipan Kundu include University of Pennsylvania & Cornell University.

Causality constraints in conformal field theory

Abstract: Causality places nontrivial constraints on QFT in Lorentzian signature, for example fixing the signs of certain terms in the low energy Lagrangian. In d dimensional conformal field theory, we show how such constraints are encoded in crossing symmetry of Euclidean correlators, and derive analogous constraints directly from the conformal bootstrap (analytically). The bootstrap setup is a Lorentzian four-point function corresponding to propagation through a shockwave. Crossing symmetry fixes the signs of certain log terms that appear in the conformal block expansion, which constrains the interactions of low-lying operators. As an application, we use the bootstrap to rederive the well known sign constraint on the (∂ϕ)4 coupling in effective field theory, from a dual CFT. We also find constraints on theories with higher spin conserved currents. Our analysis is restricted to scalar correlators, but we argue that similar methods should also impose nontrivial constraints on the interactions of spinning operators.

Averaged null energy condition from causality

Abstract: Unitary, Lorentz-invariant quantum field theories in flat spacetime obey mi-crocausality: commutators vanish at spacelike separation. For interacting theories in more than two dimensions, we show that this implies that the averaged null energy, ∫ duT uu , must be non-negative. This non-local operator appears in the operator product expansion of local operators in the lightcone limit, and therefore contributes to n-point functions. We derive a sum rule that isolates this contribution and is manifestly positive. The argument also applies to certain higher spin operators other than the stress tensor, generating an infinite family of new constraints of the form ∫ duX uuu···u ≥ 0. These lead to new inequalities for the coupling constants of spinning operators in conformal field theory, which include as special cases (but are generally stronger than) the existing constraints from the lightcone bootstrap, deep inelastic scattering, conformal collider methods, and relative entropy. We also comment on the relation to the recent derivation of the averaged null energy condition from relative entropy, and suggest a more general connection between causality and information-theoretic inequalities in QFT.

Holographic Mutual Information at Finite Temperature

Abstract: Using the Ryu-Takayanagi conjectured formula for entanglement entropy in the context of gauge-gravity duality, we investigate properties of mutual information between two disjoint rectangular sub-systems in nite temperature relativistic conformal eld theories in d-spacetime dimensions and non-relativistic scale-invariant theories in some generic examples. In all these cases mutual information undergoes a transition beyond which it is identically zero. We study this transition in detail and nd universal qualitative features for the above class of theories which has holographic dual descrip- tions. We also obtain analytical results for mutual information in the specic regime of the parameter space. This demonstrates that mutual information contains the quantum entanglement part of the entanglement entropy, which is otherwise dominated by the thermal entropy at large temperatures.

Einstein gravity 3-point functions from conformal field theory

Abstract: We study stress tensor correlation functions in four-dimensional conformal field theories with large N and a sparse spectrum. Theories in this class are expected to have local holographic duals, so effective field theory in anti-de Sitter suggests that the stress tensor sector should exhibit universal, gravity-like behavior. At the linearized level, the hallmark of locality in the emergent geometry is that stress tensor three-point functions 〈T T T 〉, normally specified by three constants, should approach a universal structure controlled by a single parameter as the gap to higher spin operators is increased. We demonstrate this phenomenon by a direct CFT calculation. Stress tensor exchange, by itself, violates causality and unitarity unless the three-point functions are carefully tuned, and the unique consistent choice exactly matches the prediction of Einstein gravity. Under some assumptions about the other potential contributions, we conclude that this structure is universal, and in particular, that the anomaly coefficients satisfy a ≈ c as conjectured by Camanho et al. The argument is based on causality of a four-point function, with kinematics designed to probe bulk locality, and invokes the chaos bound of Maldacena, Shenker, and Stanford.

Strongly coupled gauge theories: high and low temperature behavior of non-local observables

Abstract: We explore the high and low temperature behavior of non-local observables in strongly coupled gauge theories that are dual to AdS. We develop a systematic expansion for equal time two-point correlation, spatial Wilson loops and entanglement entropy at finite temperature using the AdS/CFT correspondence, leading to analytic expressions for these observables at high and low temperature limits. This approach enables the identification of the contributions of different regions of the bulk geometry to these gauge theory observables.

The Spectrum in the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev Model

Abstract: The SYK model consists of N ≫ 1 fermions in 0 + 1 dimensions with a random, all-to-all quartic interaction. Recently, Kitaev has found that the SYK model is maximally chaotic and has proposed it as a model of holography. We solve the SchwingerDyson equation and compute the spectrum of two-particle states in SYK, finding both a continuous and discrete tower. The four-point function is expressed as a sum over the spectrum. The sum over the discrete tower is evaluated.

A New Mechanism for Baryogenesis

Abstract: A new mechanism for baryogenesis is proposed. It is argued that, after inflation, the scalar quarks and leptons of a supersymmetric GUT may have large expectation values. The subsequent evolution of such a system is shown to generate a significant baryon density. For typical values of the parameters, n B / n γ may be as large as 10 3 .

The Conformal Bootstrap: Theory, Numerical Techniques, and Applications

Abstract: Conformal field theories have been long known to describe the fascinating universal physics of scale invariant critical points. They describe continuous phase transitions in fluids, magnets, and numerous other materials, while at the same time sit at the heart of our modern understanding of quantum field theory. For decades it has been a dream to study these intricate strongly coupled theories nonperturbatively using symmetries and other consistency conditions. This idea, called the conformal bootstrap, saw some successes in two dimensions but it is only in the last ten years that it has been fully realized in three, four, and other dimensions of interest. This renaissance has been possible both due to significant analytical progress in understanding how to set up the bootstrap equations and the development of numerical techniques for finding or constraining their solutions. These developments have led to a number of groundbreaking results, including world record determinations of critical exponents and correlation function coefficients in the Ising and $O(N)$ models in three dimensions. This article will review these exciting developments for newcomers to the bootstrap, giving an introduction to conformal field theories and the theory of conformal blocks, describing numerical techniques for the bootstrap based on convex optimization, and summarizing in detail their applications to fixed points in three and four dimensions with no or minimal supersymmetry.

De Sitter Space and the Swampland

Abstract: It has been notoriously difficult to construct a meta-stable de Sitter (dS) vacuum in string theory in a controlled approximation. This suggests the possibility that meta-stable dS belongs to the swampland. In this paper, we propose a swampland criterion in the form of $| abla V|\geq\ c \cdot V$ for a scalar potential $V$ of any consistent theory of quantum gravity, for a positive constant $c$. In particular, this bound forbids dS vacua. The existence of this bound is motivated by the abundance of string theory constructions and no-go theorems which exhibit this behavior. We also extend some of the well-known no-go theorems for the existence of dS vacua in string theory to more general accelerating universes and reinterpret the results in terms of restrictions on allowed scalar potentials.

Analyticity in Spin in Conformal Theories

Abstract: Conformal theory correlators are characterized by the spectrum and three-point functions of local operators. We present a formula which extracts this data as an analytic function of spin. In analogy with a classic formula due to Froissart and Gribov, it is sensitive only to an “imaginary part” which appears after analytic continuation to Lorentzian signature, and it converges thanks to recent bounds on the high-energy Regge limit. At large spin, substituting in cross-channel data, the formula yields 1/J expansions with controlled errors. In large-N theories, the imaginary part is saturated by single-trace operators. For a sparse spectrum, it manifests the suppression of bulk higher-derivative interactions that constitutes the signature of a local gravity dual in Anti-de-Sitter space.