Holographic RG flow triggered by a classically marginal operator

TL;DR

This paper explores how quantum corrections induce nontrivial renormalization group flows in holographic models when marginal operators are involved, highlighting the role of quantum effects in deforming conformal field theories.

Contribution

It provides a holographic analysis of RG flows triggered by classically marginal operators, incorporating quantum corrections and their effects on physical quantities and trace anomalies.

Findings

Quantum corrections turn marginal operators into truly marginal or marginally relevant/irrelevant.

The study elucidates the dependence of coupling constants and VEVs on the RG scale.

It discusses the holographic trace anomaly due to gluon condensation.

Abstract

We study the holographic renormalization group (RG) flow triggered by a classically marginal operator. When a marginal operator deforms a conformal field theory, it does not yield a nontrivial renormalization group flow at the classical level. At the quantum level, however, quantum corrections modify a marginal operator into one of the truly marginal, marginally relevant, and marginally irrelevant operators and can generate a nontrivial RG flow. We investigate the holographic description of a RG flow triggered by a marginal operator with quantum corrections. We look into how the physical quantities of a deformed theory, a coupling constant and the vacuum expectation value, rely on the RG scale. We further discuss the holographic description of the trace anomaly caused by the gluon condensation.