Epfl Lectures on Conformal Field Theory in D = 3 Dimensions

This primer develops Conformal Field Theory (CFT) from scratch, whereby CFT is viewed as any conformally-invariant theory that describes a fixed point of a renormalization group flow in quantum field theory.

The book is divided into four lectures: Lecture 1 addresses the physical foundations of conformal invariance, while Lecture 2 examines the constraints imposed by conformal symmetry on the correlation functions of local operators, presented using the so-called projective null cone – a procedure also known as the embedding formalism. In turn, Lecture 3 focuses on the radial quantization and the operator product expansion, while Lecture 4 offers a very brief introduction to the conformal bootstrap.

Derived from course-based notes, these lectures are intended as a first point of entry to this topic for Master and PhD students alike.

Prof. Vyacheslav (Slava) Rychkov obtained his Ph.D. in 2002 from Princeton University. Since 2012 he has been a staff member at CERN. In 2014 he was awarded the 'New Horizons in Physics Prize' for his work on conformal field theory.