Principal Chiral Field at Large N

Typically, the exact ground state energy of integrable models at finite volume can be computed using two main methods: the thermodynamic Bethe ansatz approach and the lattice discretization technique. For quantum sigma models (with non-ultra local Poisson structures) the bridge between these two approaches has only been done through numerical methods. We briefly review these two techniques on the example of the SU(2) principal chiral field model and derive a single integral e...

In this review we study quantum field theories and conformal field theories with global symmetries in the limit of large charge for some of the generators of the symmetry group. At low energy the sectors of the theory with large charge are described by a hybrid form of Goldstone's theorem, involving its relativistic and non-relativistic forms. The associated effective field theory in the infrared allows the computation of anomalous dimensions, and operator product expansion c...

Pure Yang-Mills SU(N) theory is studied in the Landau gauge and four dimensional space. While leaving the original Lagrangian unmodified, a double perturbative expansion is devised, based on a massive free-particle propagator. In dimensional regularization, all diverging mass terms cancel exactly in the double expansion, without the need to include mass counterterms that would spoil the symmetry of the Lagrangian. No free parameters are included that were not in the original ...

In these lecture notes, I review how to use large N techniques to solve quantum field theories in various dimensions. In particular, the case of N-dimensional quantum mechanics, non-relativistic cold and dense neutron matter, and scalar field theory in four dimensions are covered. A recurring theme is that large N solutions are fully non-perturbative, and can be used to reliably access quantum field theory for parameter regions where weak-coupling expansions simply fail.

Second-order equations of motion on a group manifold that appear in a large class of so-called chiral theories are presented. These equations are presented and explicitely solved for cases of semi-simple, finite-dimensional Lie groups. With three figures avaliable from the authors upon request.

Chiral algebras in the cohomology of the $\overline{Q}_+$ supercharge of two-dimensional $\mathcal{N}=(0,2)$ theories on flat spacetime are discussed. Using the supercurrent multiplet, we show that the answer is renormalization group invariant for theories with an R-symmetry. For $\mathcal{N}=(0,2)$ Landau-Ginzburg models, the chiral algebra is determined by the operator equations of motion, which preserve their classical form, and quantum renormalization of composite operato...

There has been recently considerable progress in understanding the nature of perturbation theory in UV free and gapped $2d$ integrable field theories with renormalon singularities. Thanks to Bethe ansatz and large $N$ techniques, non-perturbative corrections can also be computed and lead to the reconstruction of the trans-series for the free energy in presence of a chemical potential. This is an ideal arena to test resurgence in QFT and determine if and how the exact result c...

We present an analytic approach to solving 1+1 dimensional QCD with an adjoint Majorana fermion. In the UV this theory is described by a trivial CFT containing free fermions. The quasi-primary operators of this CFT lead to a discrete basis of states which is useful for diagonalizing the Hamiltonian of the full strongly interacting theory. Working at large-$N$, we find that the decoupling of high scaling-dimension quasi-primary operators from the low-energy spectrum occurs exp...

We analyze the ultraviolet to infrared evolution and nonperturbative properties of asymptotically free ${\rm SU}(N) \otimes {\rm SU}(N-4) \otimes {\rm U}(1)$ chiral gauge theories with $N_f$ copies of chiral fermions transforming according to $([2]_N,1)_{N-4} + ([\bar 1]_N,[\bar 1]_{N-4})_{-(N-2)} + (1,(2)_{N-4})_N$, where $[k]_N$ and $(k)_N$ denote the antisymmetric and symmetric rank-$k$ tensor representations of SU($N$) and the rightmost subscript is the U(1) charge. We gi...

The partition function of a two-dimensional quantum gauge theory in the large-$N$ limit is expressed as the functional integral over some scalar field. The large-$N$ saddle point equation is presented and solved. The free energy is calculated as the function of the area and of the Euler characteristic. There is no non-trivial saddle point at genus $g>0$. The existence of a non-trivial saddle point is closely related to the weak coupling behavior of the theory. Possible applic...