Boosting to BMS

Abstract

Bondi-Metzner-Sachs (BMS) symmetries, or equivalently Conformal Carroll symmetries, are intrinsically associated to null manifolds and in two dimensions can be obtained as an In{ö}n{ü}-Wigner contraction of the two-dimensional ($2d$) relativistic conformal algebra. Instead of performing contractions, we demonstrate in this paper how this transmutation of symmetries can be achieved by infinite boosts or degenerate linear transformations on coordinates. Taking explicit cues from the worldsheet theory of null strings, we show boosting the system is equivalent to adding a current-current deformation term to the Hamiltonian. As the strength of this deformation term reaches a critical value, the classical symmetry algebra "flows" from two copies of Virasoro to the BMS algebra. We further explore the situation where the CFT coordinates are asymmetrically transformed, and degenerate limits lead to chiral theories.

v2: Minor modifications, version to appear in JHEP

References in corpus (11)

• The BMS/GCA correspondence
• Conformal Carroll groups and BMS symmetry
• Carroll versus Newton and Galilei: two dual non-Einsteinian concepts of time
• Entropy of three-dimensional asymptotically flat cosmological solutions
• Entanglement entropy in Galilean conformal field theories and flat holography
• Conformal Carroll groups
• Flat-Space Chiral Gravity
• Asymptotic symmetries and dynamics of three-dimensional flat supergravity
• Tensionless Superstrings: View from the Worldsheet
• Aspects of Flat/CCFT Correspondence
• The complex null string, Galilean conformal algebra and scattering equations

Cited by in corpus (30)

• AdS Witten Diagrams to Carrollian Correlators
• Conformal Carroll Scalars with Boosts
• Carroll black holes
• Duality-Invariant Non-linear Electrodynamics and Stress Tensor Flows
• From CFTs to theories with Bondi-Metzner-Sachs symmetries: Complexity and out-of-time-ordered correlators
• Nonlinear automorphism of the conformal algebra in 2D and continuous $\sqrt{T\bar{T}}$ deformations
• Carroll fermions in two dimensions
• Interacting Chiral Form Field Theories and $T\overline{T}$-like Flows in Six and Higher Dimensions
• Marginal $T\bar{T}$-Like Deformation and ModMax Theories in Two Dimensions
• One-Loop Quantum Effects in Carroll Scalars
• Stress Tensor Flows, Birefringence in Non-Linear Electrodynamics, and Supersymmetry
• Root-$T\overline{T}$ Deformed Boundary Conditions in Holography
• A BMS-invariant free fermion model
• $T\bar{T}$ flow as characteristic flows
• Quantization of the ModMax Oscillator
• $T\overline{T}$-Like Flows and $3d$ Nonlinear Supersymmetry
• Carrollian Yang-Mills Theory
• ModMax Oscillators and Root-$T\overline{T}$-Like Flows in Supersymmetric Quantum Mechanics
• Flows in the Space of Interacting Chiral Boson Theories
• Symmetry Resolution in non-Lorentzian Field Theories
• Quantization of Carrollian conformal scalar theories
• Asymptotic $\mathcal{O}(r)$ gauge symmetries and gauge-invariant Poincaré generators in higher spacetime dimensions
• Irrelevant and marginal deformed BMS field theories
• Root-$T\overline{T}$ deformed CFT partition functions at large central charge
• AdS${}_3$ Carroll gravity: asymptotic symmetries and C-thermal configurations
• Field-Dependent Metrics and Higher-Form Symmetries in Duality-Invariant Theories of Non-Linear Electrodynamics
• Null Strings Gauged and Reloaded, I: Null Strings Have Carroll-Weyl Gauge Symmetry
• Quantum field theory in flat spacetime with multiple time directions
• On $\sqrt{T\overline{T}}$ deformed pathways: CFT to CCFT
• Quantum fields on projective geometries