GQFI-WST Seminar: Irene Valenzuela "A CFT Distance Conjecture"
In this talk, Irene Valenzuela (Harvard) formulates a series of conjectures relating the geometry of conformal manifolds to the spectrum of local operators in conformal field theories in d larger than 2 spacetime dimensions. Irene focuses on conformal manifolds with limiting points at infinite distance with respect to the Zamolodchikov metric. The central conjecture is that all theories at infinite distance possess an emergent higher-spin symmetry, generated by an infinite tower of currents whose anomalous dimensions vanish exponentially in the distance. Stated geometrically, the diameter of a non-compact conformal manifold must diverge logarithmically in the higher-spin gap. In the holographic context the conjectures are related to the Distance Conjecture in the swampland program. Interpreted gravitationally, they imply that approaching infinite distance in moduli space at fixed AdS radius, a tower of higher-spin fields becomes massless at an exponential rate that is bounded from below in Planck units. She discusses further implications for conformal manifolds of superconformal field theories in three and four dimensions.
The Virtual Seminar Series “GQFI-Warsaw String Theory” (GQFI-WST) is a joint initiative between the strings/holography groups at the Albert Einstein Institute (AEI) in Potsdam and the University Warsaw. The calendar for upcoming GQFI-WST seminars can be found here: https://gqfi.aei.mpg.de/node/3.
This talk is primarily based on arXiv:2011.10040 [hep-th](https://arxiv.org/abs/2011.10040).
This talk was recorded on June 9th, 2021 at the Albert Einstein Institute in Potsdam-Golm.