Quantcast
  • Register
PhysicsOverflow is a next-generation academic platform for physicists and astronomers, including a community peer review system and a postgraduate-level discussion forum analogous to MathOverflow.

Welcome to PhysicsOverflow! PhysicsOverflow is an open platform for community peer review and graduate-level Physics discussion.

Please help promote PhysicsOverflow ads elsewhere if you like it.

News

PO is now at the Physics Department of Bielefeld University!

New printer friendly PO pages!

Migration to Bielefeld University was successful!

Please vote for this year's PhysicsOverflow ads!

Please do help out in categorising submissions. Submit a paper to PhysicsOverflow!

... see more

Tools for paper authors

Submit paper
Claim Paper Authorship

Tools for SE users

Search User
Reclaim SE Account
Request Account Merger
Nativise imported posts
Claim post (deleted users)
Import SE post

Users whose questions have been imported from Physics Stack Exchange, Theoretical Physics Stack Exchange, or any other Stack Exchange site are kindly requested to reclaim their account and not to register as a new user.

Public \(\beta\) tools

Report a bug with a feature
Request a new functionality
404 page design
Send feedback

Attributions

(propose a free ad)

Site Statistics

205 submissions , 163 unreviewed
5,054 questions , 2,207 unanswered
5,345 answers , 22,720 comments
1,470 users with positive rep
818 active unimported users
More ...

  Stack presentations and massive non-conformal theories

+ 5 like - 0 dislike
379 views

In the paper, Cluster Decomposition, T-duality, and Gerby CFT’s , by Hellerman, Henriques, Pantev and Sharpe, in the introduction it says:

"Briefly, the idea is that nearly every stack has a presentation of the form $[X/G]$, where $G$ is a not-necessarily-finite, not-necessarily-effectively acting group acting on a space $X$, and to such presentations, one associates a $G$-gauged sigma model on $X$. The basic problem is that presentations of this form are not unique, and the physics can depend strongly on the proposed dictionary. For example, a given stack can have presentations as global quotients by both finite and nonfinite groups; the former leads immediately to a CFT, whereas the latter will give a massive non-conformal theory."

I'm trying to make sense of the very last claim. I think I have a pretty good understanding how the finite case leads to a CFT, at least in two dimensions. As explained in the same paper on many examples, if $G$ is finite, we can write 1-loop partition function, twisted sectors, etc.

But I'm terribly confused about this "massive non-conformal theory" in connection to infinite groups. My (superficial) understanding of massive theories is limited to the Sine-Gordon model in two dimensions, which in the ultraviolet limit gives a scalar field ($c=1$ CFT). So here's my question:

Is "massive non-conformal theory" they are referring to the same thing as "massive deformation of a CFT", in the sense that the Hamiltonian is deformed with an extra term? If so, what is the relationship between the group $G$ and the deformation? The same paper doesn't discuss a single example for $G$ infinite. Are there any examples in the literature?

I apologize in advance if this is too vague and/or poorly motivated.

This post imported from StackExchange Physics at 2015-01-08 23:00 (UTC), posted by SE-user user45130
asked Jan 8, 2015 in Theoretical Physics by user45130 (25 points) [ no revision ]

Your answer

Please use answers only to (at least partly) answer questions. To comment, discuss, or ask for clarification, leave a comment instead.
To mask links under text, please type your text, highlight it, and click the "link" button. You can then enter your link URL.
Please consult the FAQ for as to how to format your post.
This is the answer box; if you want to write a comment instead, please use the 'add comment' button.
Live preview (may slow down editor)   Preview
Your name to display (optional):
Privacy: Your email address will only be used for sending these notifications.
Anti-spam verification:
If you are a human please identify the position of the character covered by the symbol $\varnothing$ in the following word:
p$\hbar$ysicsOverflo$\varnothing$
Then drag the red bullet below over the corresponding character of our banner. When you drop it there, the bullet changes to green (on slow internet connections after a few seconds).
Please complete the anti-spam verification




user contributions licensed under cc by-sa 3.0 with attribution required

Your rights
...