Characters of irrelevant deformations

Abstract

We analyse the $T\bar{T}$ deformation of 2d CFTs in a special double-scaling limit, of large central charge and small deformation parameter. In particular, we derive closed formulae for the deformation of the product of left and right moving CFT characters on the torus. It is shown that the $1/c$ contribution takes the same form as that of a CFT, but with rescalings of the modular parameter reflecting a state-dependent change of coordinates. We also extend the analysis for more general deformations that involve $T\bar{T}$, $J\bar{T}$ and $T\bar{J}$ simultaneously. We comment on the implications of our results for holographic proposals of irrelevant deformations.