A note on the large charge expansion in 4d CFT

Understand

In this letter, we discuss certain universal predictions of the large charge expansion in conformal field theories with $U(1)$ symmetry, mainly focusing on four-dimensional theories.

• We show that, while in three dimensions quantum fluctuations are responsible for the existence of a theory-independent $Q^0$ term in the scaling dimension $\Delta_Q$ of the lightest operator with fixed charge $Q\gg 1$, in four dimensions the same mechanism provides a universal $Q^0\log Q$ correction to $\Delta_Q$.
• Previous works discussing four-dimensional theories failed in identifying this term.
• We also compute the first subleading correction to the OPE coefficient corresponding to the insertion of an arbitrary primary operator with small charge $q\ll Q$ in between the minimal energy states with charge $Q$ and $Q+q$, both in three and four dimensions.