Weyl consistency conditions

Speaker: Andreas Stergiou, Yale University

When: September 25, 2013 (Wed), 03:45PM to 04:45PM (add to my calendar)
Location: PRB 595

This event is part of the HET Seminar Series.

Abstract: Applying the Wess-Zumino consistency conditions to the Weyl group leads to powerful constraints on the renormalization-group running of various parameters of quantum field theories (QFTs). Indeed, both Zamolodchikov's c-theorem in 2d as well as the perturbative 4d a-theorem can be obtained with the use of Weyl consistency conditions. In this talk we will review these methods in detail, and we will apply them to QFTs in any even d. We will find a condition that may serve as a generalization of the c and a theorems to any even d, and show that such a generalization hinges on proving positivity of a certain "metric" in the space of couplings. The recently-developed 6d case will be used repeatedly along the way to illustrate various essential points.