Holographic Complex Conformal Field Theories

TL;DR

This paper explores complex conformal field theories at strong coupling using gauge/gravity duality, providing evidence for their existence and describing phenomena like walking behavior and Miransky scaling.

Contribution

It introduces a novel holographic approach to study complex CFTs and supports the conjecture of their existence at fixed points in gauge theories.

Findings

Evidence for complex fixed points near the real axis.

Observation of walking behavior with Miransky scaling.

Holographic realization of complex conformal field theories.

Abstract

The loss of criticality in the form of weak first-order transitions or the end of the conformal window in gauge theories can be described as the merging of two fixed points that move to complex values of the couplings. When the complex fixed points are close to the real axis, the system typically exhibits walking behavior with Miransky (or Berezinsky-Kosterlitz-Thouless) scaling. We present a novel realization of these phenomena at strong coupling by means of the gauge/gravity duality, and give evidence for the conjectured existence of complex conformal field theories at the fixed points.