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A bstract When studying quantum field theories and lattice models, it is often useful to analytically continue the number of field or spin components from an integer to a real number. In spite of this, the precise meaning of such analytic continuations has never been fully clarified, and in particular the symmetry of these theories is obscure. We clarify these issues using Deligne categories and their associated Brauer algebras, and show that these provide logically satisfactory answers to these questions. Simple objects of the Deligne category generalize the notion of an irreducible representations, avoiding the need for such mathematically nonsensical notions as vector spaces of non-integer dimension. We develop a systematic theory of categorical symmetries, applying it in both perturbative and non- perturbative contexts. A partial list of our results is: categorical symmetries are preserved under RG flows; continuous categorical symmetries come equipped with conserved currents; CFTs with categorical symmetries are necessarily non-unitary.

A bstract For expansions in one-dimensional conformal blocks, we provide a rigorous link between the asymptotics of the spectral density of exchanged primaries and the leading singularity in the crossed channel. Our result has a direct application to systems of SL(2, ℝ )-invariant correlators (also known as 1d CFTs). It also puts on solid ground a part of the lightcone bootstrap analysis of the spectrum of operators of high spin and bounded twist in CFTs in d > 2. In addition, a similar argument controls the spectral density asymptotics in large N gauge theories.

A bstract We discuss walking behavior in gauge theories and weak first-order phase transitions in statistical physics. Despite appearing in very different systems (QCD below the conformal window, the Potts model, deconfined criticality) these two phenomena both imply approximate scale invariance in a range of energies and have the same RG interpretation: a flow passing between pairs of fixed point at complex coupling. We discuss what distinguishes a real theory from a complex theory and call these fixed points complex CFTs. By using conformal perturbation theory we show how observables of the walking theory are computable by perturbing the complex CFTs. This paper discusses the general mechanism while a companion paper [ 1 ] will treat a specific and computable example: the two-dimensional Q -state Potts model with Q > 4. Concerning walking in 4d gauge theories, we also comment on the (un)likelihood of the light pseudo-dilaton, and on non-minimal scenarios of the conformal window termination.

A bstract CFTs in Euclidean signature satisfy well-accepted rules, such as the convergent Euclidean OPE. It is nowadays common to assume that CFT correlators exist and have various properties also in Lorentzian signature. Some of these properties may represent extra assumptions, and it is an open question if they hold for familiar statistical-physics CFTs such as the critical 3d Ising model. Here we consider Wightman 4-point functions of scalar primaries in Lorentzian signature. We derive a minimal set of their properties solely from the Euclidean unitary CFT axioms, without using extra assumptions. We establish all Wightman axioms (temperedness, spectral property, local commutativity, clustering), Lorentzian conformal invariance, and distributional convergence of the s-channel Lorentzian OPE. This is done constructively, by analytically continuing the 4-point functions using the s-channel OPE expansion in the radial cross-ratios ρ , ρ ¯ . We prove a key fact that | ρ |, ρ ¯ < 1 inside the forward tube, and set bounds on how fast | ρ |, ρ ¯ may tend to 1 when approaching the Minkowski space. We also provide a guide to the axiomatic QFT literature for the modern CFT audience. We review the Wightman and Osterwalder-Schrader (OS) axioms for Lorentzian and Euclidean QFTs, and the celebrated OS theorem connecting them. We also review a classic result of Mack about the distributional OPE convergence. Some of the classic arguments turn out useful in our setup. Others fall short of our needs due to Lorentzian assumptions (Mack) or unverifiable Euclidean assumptions (OS theorem).

A bstract We show that the four-point functions in conformal field theory are defined as distributions on the boundary of the region of convergence of the conformal block expansion. The conformal block expansion converges in the sense of distributions on this boundary, i.e. it can be integrated term by term against appropriate test functions. This can be interpreted as a giving a new class of functionals that satisfy the swapping property when applied to the crossing equation, and we comment on the relation of our construction to other types of functionals. Our language is useful in all considerations involving the boundary of the region of convergence, e.g. for deriving the dispersion relations. We establish our results by elementary methods, relying only on crossing symmetry and the standard convergence properties of the conformal block expansion. This is the first in a series of papers on distributional properties of correlation functions in conformal field theory.

A bstract Quenched disorder is very important but notoriously hard. In 1979, Parisi and Sourlas proposed an interesting and powerful conjecture about the infrared fixed points with random field type of disorder: such fixed points should possess an unusual supersymmetry, by which they reduce in two less spatial dimensions to usual non-supersymmetric non- disordered fixed points. This conjecture however is known to fail in some simple cases, but there is no consensus on why this happens. In this paper we give new non-perturbative arguments for dimensional reduction. We recast the problem in the language of Conformal Field Theory (CFT). We then exhibit a map of operators and correlation functions from Parisi-Sourlas supersymmetric CFT in d dimensions to a ( d − 2)-dimensional ordinary CFT. The reduced theory is local, i.e. it has a local conserved stress tensor operator. As required by reduction, we show a perfect match between superconformal blocks and the usual conformal blocks in two dimensions lower. This also leads to a new relation between conformal blocks across dimensions. This paper concerns the second half of the Parisi-Sourlas conjecture, while the first half (existence of a supersymmetric fixed point) will be examined in a companion work.

A bstract We revisit perturbative RG analysis in the replicated Landau-Ginzburg description of the Random Field Ising Model near the upper critical dimension 6. Working in a field basis with manifest vicinity to a weakly-coupled Parisi-Sourlas supersymmetric fixed point (Cardy, 1985), we look for interactions which may destabilize the SUSY RG flow and lead to the loss of dimensional reduction. This problem is reduced to studying the anomalous dimensions of “leaders” — lowest dimension parts of S n -invariant perturbations in the Cardy basis. Leader operators are classified as non-susy-writable, susy-writable or susy-null depending on their symmetry. Susy-writable leaders are additionally classified as belonging to superprimary multiplets transforming in particular OSp( d| 2) representations. We enumerate all leaders up to 6d dimension ∆ = 12, and compute their perturbative anomalous dimensions (up to two loops). We thus identify two perturbations (with susy- null and non-susy-writable leaders) becoming relevant below a critical dimension d c ≈ 4 . 2 - 4 . 7. This supports the scenario that the SUSY fixed point exists for all 3 < d ⩽ 6, but becomes unstable for d < d c .

A bstract The modern conformal bootstrap program often employs the method of linear functionals to derive the numerical or analytical bounds on the CFT data. These functionals must have a crucial “swapping” property, allowing to swap infinite summation with the action of the functional in the conformal bootstrap sum rule. Swapping is easy to justify for the popular functionals involving finite sums of derivatives. However, it is far from obvious for “cut-touching” functionals, involving integration over regions where conformal block decomposition does not converge uniformly. Functionals of this type were recently considered by Mazáč in his work on analytic derivation of optimal bootstrap bounds. We derive general swapping criteria for the cut-touching functionals, and check in a few explicit examples that Mazáč’s functionals pass our criteria.

A bstract Much of our understanding of critical phenomena is based on the notion of Renormalization Group (RG), but the actual determination of its fixed points is usually based on approximations and truncations, and predictions of physical quantities are often of limited accuracy. The RG fixed points can be however given a fully rigorous and non- perturbative characterization, and this is what is presented here in a model of symplectic fermions with a nonlocal (“long-range”) kinetic term depending on a parameter ε and a quartic interaction. We identify the Banach space of interactions, which the fixed point belongs to, and we determine it via a convergent approximation scheme. The Banach space is not limited to relevant interactions, but it contains all possible irrelevant terms with short-ranged kernels, decaying like a stretched exponential at large distances. As the model shares a number of features in common with ϕ 4 or Ising models, the result can be used as a benchmark to test the validity of truncations and approximations in RG studies. The analysis is based on results coming from Constructive RG to which we provide a tutorial and self-contained introduction. In addition, we prove that the fixed point is analytic in ε , a somewhat surprising fact relying on the fermionic nature of the problem.

A bstract We develop the embedding formalism for conformal field theories, aimed at doing computations with symmetric traceless operators of arbitrary spin. We use an indexfree notation where tensors are encoded by polynomials in auxiliary polarization vectors. The efficiency of the formalism is demonstrated by computing the tensor structures allowed in n -point conformal correlation functions of tensors operators. Constraints due to tensor conservation also take a simple form in this formalism. Finally, we obtain a perfect match between the number of independent tensor structures of conformal correlators in d dimensions and the number of independent structures in scattering amplitudes of spinning particles in ( d  + 1)-dimensional Minkowski space.