Line defects in the 3d Ising model

TL;DR

This paper studies the properties of twist line defects in the critical 3d Ising model using Monte Carlo simulations, exploring their conformal behavior and operator spectra at criticality.

Contribution

It provides the first numerical analysis of the conformal properties and operator spectrum of twist line defects in the 3d Ising model.

Findings

Twist line defect flows to a conformal line defect at criticality.

Numerical spectrum of anomalous dimensions for defect operators.

Correlation functions linking bulk and defect operators.

Abstract

We investigate the properties of the twist line defect in the critical 3d Ising model using Monte Carlo simulations. In this model the twist line defect is the boundary of a surface of frustrated links or, in a dual description, the Wilson line of the Z2 gauge theory. We test the hypothesis that the twist line defect flows to a conformal line defect at criticality and evaluate numerically the low-lying spectrum of anomalous dimensions of the local operators which live on the defect as well as mixed correlation functions of local operators in the bulk and on the defect.