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El-Showk, Sheer

Publications and source records attributed to El-Showk, Sheer.

Bootstrapping SCFTs with four supercharges

Here, we study the constraints imposed by superconformal symmetry, crossing symmetry, and unitarity for theories with four supercharges in spacetime dimension 2 ≤ d ≤ 4. We show how superconformal algebras with four Poincaré supercharges can be treated in a formalism applicable to any, in principle continuous, value of d and use this to construct the superconformal blocks for any d ≤ 4. We then use numerical bootstrap techniques to derive upper bounds on the conformal dimension of the first unprotected operator appearing in the OPE of a chiral and an anti-chiral superconformal primary. We obtain an intriguing structure of three distinct kinks. We argue that one of the kinks smoothly interpolates between the d = 2, N=(2,2) minimal model with central charge c = 1 and the theory of a free chiral multiplet in d = 4, passing through the critical Wess-Zumino model with cubic superpotential in intermediate dimensions.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Solving the 3d Ising Model with the Conformal Bootstrap II. c -Minimization and Precise Critical Exponents

Here, we use the conformal bootstrap to perform a precision study of the operator spectrum of the critical 3d Ising model. We conjecture that the 3d Ising spectrum minimizes the central charge \(c\) in the space of unitary solutions to crossing symmetry. Because extremal solutions to crossing symmetry are uniquely determined, we are even able to precisely reconstruct the first several \(\mathbb {Z}_2\) -even operator dimensions and their OPE coefficients. We observe that a sharp transition in the operator spectrum occurs at the 3d Ising dimension \(\Delta _\sigma = 0.518154(15)\) , and find strong numerical evidence that operators decouple from the spectrum as one approaches the 3d Ising point. We compare this behavior to the analogous situation in 2d, where the disappearance of operators can be understood in terms of degenerate Virasoro representations.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Conformal Field Theories in Fractional Dimensions

We study the conformal bootstrap in fractional space-time dimensions, obtaining rigorous bounds on operator dimensions. Our results show strong evidence that there is a family of unitary conformal field theories connecting the 2D Ising model, the 3D Ising model, and the free scalar theory in 4D. We give numerical predictions for the leading operator dimensions and central charge in this family at different values of D and compare these to calculations of Φ4 theory in the ϵ expansion.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗