Elliptic thermal correlation functions and modular forms in a globally conformal invariant QFT

Abstract

Global conformal invariance (GCI) of quantum field theory (QFT) in two and higher space-time dimensions implies the Huygens' principle, and hence, rationality of correlation functions of observable fields [29]. The conformal Hamiltonian H has discrete spectrum assumed here to be finitely degenerate. We then prove that thermal expectation values of field products on compactified Minkowski space can be represented as finite linear combinations of basic (doubly periodic) elliptic functions in the conformal time variables (of periods 1 and tau) whose coefficients are, in general, formal power series in q(1/2) = e(i pi tau) involving spherical functions of the "space-like" fields' arguments. As a corollary, if the resulting expansions converge to meromorphic functions, then the finite temperature correlation functions are elliptic. Thermal 2-point functions of free fields are computed and shown to display these features. We also study modular transformation properties of Gibbs energy mean values with respect to the (complex) inverse temperature tau (Im tau = beta/2 pi > 0). The results are used to obtain the thermodynamic limit of thermal energy densities and correlation functions.