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How do boundaries reshape quantum field theories?

Xinyu Sun, Shao-Kai Jian, Hong Yao

May 27, 2026

When quantum fields meet a boundary—like a surface in a material—they behave differently. This work uses conformal bootstrap techniques to systematically classify boundary quantum systems with interactions, finding new fixed points (stable physical phases) in four dimensions that previous methods overlooked, including exotic non-unitary ones. Results apply directly to critical phenomena in condensed matter.
Published as Analytic Bootstrap for $O(N)$ Boundary Conformal Field Theories with Interacting Boundaries arXiv:2605.28933
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