High Energy Theory Seminar

Conformal field theories connected by exactly marginal deformations form conformal manifolds. In this talk, we will show that every 1+1D CFT with two commuting U(1) symmetries has a marginal deformation, known as current-current deformations. We will prove this by showing that any two theories on the conformal manifold are related by topological gauging. On a rationally dense set of points, this topological gauging reduces to discrete gauging. Using this perspective, we can connect the topology of the conformal manifolds with the anomalies of the U(1) currents and identify hidden boundary conditions and non-invertible symmetries on the conformal manifolds. Finally, we will discuss how these current-current deformations can be understood from the recently proposed continuous abelian symmetry topological field theory.

The talk is in 469 Lauritsen.

Contact theoryinfo@caltech.edu for Zoom information.