Boson–fermion duality in a gravitational background

Yago Ferreiros, Eduardo Fradkin

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

We study the 2+1 dimensional boson–fermion duality in the presence of background curvature and electromagnetic fields. The main players are, on the one hand, a massive complex [Formula presented] scalar field coupled to a [Formula presented] Maxwell–Chern–Simons gauge field at level 1, representing a relativistic composite boson with one unit of attached flux, and on the other hand, a massive Dirac fermion. We show that, in a curved background and at the level of the partition function, the relativistic composite boson, in the infinite coupling limit, is dual to a short-range interacting Dirac fermion. The coupling to the gravitational spin connection arises naturally from the spin factors of the Wilson loop in the Chern–Simons theory. A non-minimal coupling to the scalar curvature is included on the bosonic side in order to obtain agreement between partition functions. Although an explicit Lagrangian expression for the fermionic interactions is not obtained, their short-range nature constrains them to be irrelevant, which protects the duality in its strong interpretation as an exact mapping at the IR fixed point between a Wilson–Fisher–Chern–Simons complex scalar and a free Dirac fermion. We also show that, even away from the IR, keeping the [Formula presented] term is of key importance as it provides the short-range bosonic interactions necessary to prevent intersections of worldlines in the path integral, thus forbidding unknotting of knots and ensuring preservation of the worldline topologies.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1-25
Number of pages25
JournalAnnals of Physics
Volume399
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 2018

Keywords

  • Composite boson
  • Field theory duality
  • Quantum Hall effect
  • Topological field theory

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Physics and Astronomy

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