Anomalies and Bounds on Charged Operators

Abstract

We study the implications of the ’t Hooft anomaly (i.e., obstruction to gauging) on conformal field theory, focusing on the case when the global symmetry is Z_2. Using the modular bootstrap, universal bounds on (1+1)-dimensional bosonic conformal field theories with an internal Z_2 global symmetry are derived. The bootstrap bounds depend dramatically on the ’t Hooft anomaly. In particular, there is a universal upper bound on the lightest Z_2 odd operator if the symmetry is anomalous, but there is no bound if the symmetry is nonanomalous. In the nonanomalous case, we find that the lightest Z_2 odd state and the defect ground state cannot both be arbitrarily heavy. We also consider theories with a U(1) global symmetry, and comment that there is no bound on the lightest U(1) charged operator if the symmetry is nonanomalous.