Simons Collaboration on

The Nonperturbative Bootstrap

The Problem of Strong

Coupling
Quantum field theory (QFT) is a universal
language for theoretical physics,
describing the Standard Model of particle
physics, early universe inflation, and
condensed matter phenomena such as
phase transitions, superconductors, and
quantum Hall fluids. A triumph of 20th
century physics was to understand weakly
coupled QFTs. However, weakly interacting
systems represent a tiny island in theory
space and cannot capture many of the
most interesting physical phenomena.
The critical challenge for the 21st century
is to map and understand the whole space
of QFTs, including strongly coupled
models. This is the main goal of the
Simons Collaboration on the Nonpertubative Bootstrap. Meeting this
challenge requires new physical insight,
new mathematics, and new computational
tools. Our starting point is the astonishing
discovery that the space of QFTs can be

The 3d Ising kink (arXiv:1203.6064).

determined by using only general

principles: symmetries and quantum
mechanics. By analyzing the full
implications of these general principles,
one can make sharp predictions for
physical observables without resorting to
approximations. This strategy is called the
bootstrap.

History of the Bootstrap

The bootstrap idea has its roots in the Smatrix approach to the strong nuclear
force, popular in the 1960's but largely
abandoned after the advent of Quantum
Chromodynamics. The idea that general
principles uniquely fix the dynamics of QFT
reappeared in the 1970's and 1980's with
the formulation of the conformal bootstrap,
an infinite set of consistency relations for
conformal field theories (CFTs). At the time,
these bootstrap equations were applied

A CFT correlator with wavepackets aligned to

intersect in AdS (arXiv:0907.0151).

with great success to rational CFTs, a

special class of two-dimensional models
with enhanced symmetry. However, little
progress was made in d>2 dimensions,
and for the next two decades the
bootstrap remained quiescent.

Our Collaboration
Recently, members of our collaboration
discovered new bootstrap techniques that
apply in general dimensions. In the past
few years we have applied these
techniques to a wide variety of seemingly
unrelated problems: to perform the world's
most precise analysis of the 3d Ising
model, to constrain strongly coupled
theories of physics beyond the Standard

Conformal bootstrap extrapolations of

arXiv:1607.06109 perfectly match the massive
S-matrix bootstrap (arXiv:1607.06110).

Model, to aid in classifying superconformal

field theories, to derive locality and black
hole thermality in models of quantum
gravity, and to prove irreversibility of
renormalization group flows. We believe
this is the beginning of a much larger
enterprise, crossing traditional boundaries
between string theory, condensed matter
physics, and phenomenology, and making
strong connections to modern
mathematics and computer science.

Simons Collaborations
Simons Collaborations, made possible by support from the Simons Foundation, bring
together groups of outstanding scientists to address mathematical or theoretical topics of
fundamental scientific importance in which a significant new development has created a
novel area for exploration or provided a new direction for progress in an established field.

Other Collaborations
Cracking the Glass Problem
It from Qubit
The Origins of Life
Many Electron Problem
The Global Brain
Algorithms and Geometry
Ocean Processes and Ecology
Homological Mirror Symmetry