Composite operators in $T\bar T$-deformed free QFTs

Abstract

We study perturbative renormalization of the composite operators in the $T\bar T$-deformed two-dimensional free field theories. The pattern of renormalization for the stress-energy tensor is different in the massive and massless cases. While in the latter case the canonical stress tensor is not renormalized up to high order in the perturbative expansion, in the massive theory there are induced counterterms at linear order. For a massless theory our results match the general formula derived recently in [1].