F-theorem for Quantum Field Theories in Anti-de Sitter Space

Abstract

We introduce a regularized free energy ${\mathcal{F}}_{\text{AdS}}$ for massive quantum field theories (QFTs) on Anti-de Sitter space (AdS). We conjecture this quantity to be monotonic under the renormalization group (RG) flow induced by boundary perturbations, generalizing the known boundary $F$-theorem to non-conformal setups. We test this conjecture in several examples and provide a proof in two dimensions. We also discuss applications to long-range critical points, obtaining bounds on the sphere free energy of long- and short-range Ising models in three dimensions.

10 pages + appendices, comments are welcome!