Thesis

Causality in Lorentzian CFT’s

• Call:

  PT-CERN call 2020/1

• Academic Year:

  2020/2021

• Domain:

  Astroparticle Physics

• Supervisor:

  Miguel Costa

• Co-Supervisor:

  Vasco David Fonseca Gonçalves

• Institution:

  Universidade do Porto

• Host Institution:

  CF-UM-UP - Centro de Física das Universidades do Minho e do Porto

• Abstract:

  Our current understanding of fundamental interactions is based on the universal language of Quantum Field theory (QFT), which describes the Standard Model, gravity, early universe inflation, as well as many condensed matter phenomena. Under the renormalisation group flow QFT’s are usually defined starting from a free Conformal Field Theory (CFT) in the UV that flows to another non-perturbative CFT fixed point in the IR or to a gapped phase. In addition, CFT’s define a dual gravity theory in Anti-de Sitter (AdS) space [1], becoming a tool to uncover the secrets of quantum gravity. These reasons explain why CFT’s are of primary importance in theoretical physics. This thesis proposes to study CFT’s using modern non-perturbative bootstrap techniques [2]. Our main focus will be on understanding the properties of Euclidean CFT’s that define causal Lorentzian theories, as well as unitary evolution in the dual AdS gravity theory.