Revealing the conformal symmetry of the discrete series scalars in dS${}_2$

Abstract

On two-dimensional manifolds with nonzero constant Ricci curvature, there exists an infinite sequence of scalar fields with nonzero mass parameter that admit a pair of (anti)-holomorphic currents. After suitably defining the theory in de Sitter space ($\mathrm{dS}_2$), correlation functions of these currents obey global conformal Ward identities. We address the question of how this global conformal symmetry manifests as an action on the scalar field. An essential step is in leveraging an equivalent description of the scalar field in terms of a conformal Killing tensor. Through this, we find a conformal symmetry transformation that acts locally on the conformal Killing tensor, but non-locally on the scalar field. We show that the equation of motion transforms covariantly with respect to these conformal transformations, and further find a traceless stress tensor in both $\mathrm{dS}_2$ and $\mathrm{AdS}_2$, locally defined in terms of the conformal Killing tensor, which generates the global conformal isometry transformations.