Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: We trace the history of conformal bootstrap from its early days to our times — a great example of unity of physics. We start by describing little-known details about the origins of conformal field theory in the study of strong interactions and critical phenomena in the 1960s and 1970s. We describe similarities and differences between approaches and results of the main groups in Moscow, Rome and Sofia. Then come the breakthroughs in the 1980s and the 1990s, in particular 2D CFT and holography. Finally, we describe the genesis of the numerical conformal bootstrap, from the conformal technicolor bounds in the 2000s, to the determination of the 3D Ising critical exponents in the 2010s. We conclude with some outstanding challenges. We stress that conformal invariance is a symmetry of nature.
Author: Slava Rychkov
Institution: Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques
Language: English
Subfield: Nuclear and High Energy Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funder: Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron
OpenAlex ID: W4414973603