Perturbative RG flows in AdS: an \'etude

Abstract

We discuss general properties of perturbative RG flows in AdS with a focus on the treatment of boundary conditions and infrared divergences. In contrast with flat-space boundary QFT, general covariance in AdS implies the absence of independent boundary flows. We illustrate how boundary correlation functions remain conformally covariant even if the bulk QFT has a scale. We apply our general discussion to the RG flow between consecutive unitary diagonal minimal models which is triggered by the $\phi_{(1,3)}$ operator. For these theories we conjecture a flow diagram whose form is significantly simpler than that in flat-space boundary QFT. In several stand-alone appendices we discuss two-dimensional BCFTs in general and the minimal model BCFTs in particular. These include both an extensive review as well as the computation of several new BCFT correlation functions.