Moduli Spaces in CFT: Large Charge Operators

Abstract

Using the large-charge expansion, we prove a necessary condition for a CFT to exhibit conformal symmetry breaking, under the assumption that a continuous global symmetry is ${\it also}$ broken on the moduli space: there must be a tower of charged local operators whose scaling dimensions are asymptotically linear in the charge. In supersymmetric theories with a continuous R-symmetry and a holomorphic moduli space, the existence of such a tower of operators follows trivially from a BPS condition: their scaling dimensions are then exactly linear in the R-charge. We illustrate the more general statement in several examples of three-dimensional ${\cal N}=1$ CFTs, where the leading linear behavior receives nontrivial corrections. By considering a suitable scaling limit, we also relate the spectrum of states with large charge on the cylinder (isomorphic to local operators) to the spectrum of massive particles on the moduli space.