Projectors, shadows, and conformal blocks

Abstract

We introduce a method for computing conformal blocks of operators in arbitrary Lorentz representations in any spacetime dimension, making it possible to apply bootstrap techniques to operators with spin. The key idea is to implement the “shadow formalism” of Ferrara, Gatto, Grillo, and Parisi in a setting where conformal invariance is manifest. Conformal blocks in d-dimensions can be expressed as integrals over the projective null-cone in the “embedding space” $ \mathbb{R} $ d+1,1. Taking care with their analytic structure, these integrals can be evaluated in great generality, reducing the computation of conformal blocks to a bookkeeping exercise. To facilitate calculations in four-dimensional CFTs, we introduce techniques for writing down conformally-invariant correlators using auxiliary twistor variables, and demonstrate their use in some simple examples.