Nonlocal Conformal Field Theory

Abstract

Using the recently developed notion of a fractional Virasoro algebra, we explore the implied operator product expansions in nonlocal conformal field theories and their geometric meaning. We probe the interplay between classical nonlocality in the functional-analytic sense and quantization in a two-dimensional setting and find that nonlocal quantum dynamics realize this fractional Virasoro algebra exclusively with a state dependent central charge. Notably, we prove that the widely studied free Gaussian fixed points with a fractional Laplacian kinetic term does not fit this criterion but that the RG flow associated non-Gaussian fixed points do.