Gravity as the breakdown of conformal invariance

Conformal invariance from non-conformal gravity

We discuss the conditions under which classically conformally invariant models in four dimensions can arise out of non-conformal (Einstein) gravity. As an ‘existence proof’ that this is indeed possible we show how to derive N = 4 super Yang Mills theory with any compact gauge group G from non-conformal gauged N = 4 supergravity as a special flat space limit. We stress the role that the anticipa...

Conformal dilaton gravity: Classical noninvariance gives rise to quantum invariance

Enrique Álvarez, Sergio González-Martín, and Carmelo P. Martín Instituto de Física Teórica, IFT-UAM/CSIC, Universidad Autónoma, 28049 Madrid, Spain Departamento de Física Teórica, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 28049 Madrid, Spain Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM), Departamento de Física Teórica I, Facultad de Ciencias Físicas, Av. Complutense S/N (Ciudad Univ.), 28040 Madrid, Spain (Rec...

Chapter 18 Conformal Invariance

At the beginning of the semester we motivated our investigation of symmetries by illustrating that, given differential equations which were symmetric, the solutions had to transform into each other under the symmetries as a representation of the symmetry. The first illustrations considered Schrödinger equations with symmetric potentials, such as the electrons in the spherically symmetric potent...

Conformal invariance of domino tiling

Conformal Invariance of Graphene Sheets

Suspended graphene sheets exhibit correlated random deformations that can be studied under the framework of rough surfaces with a Hurst (roughness) exponent 0.72 ± 0.01. Here, we show that, independent of the temperature, the iso-height lines at the percolation threshold have a well-defined fractal dimension and are conformally invariant, sharing the same statistical properties as Schramm-Loewn...