An SL(2,C)-parametrized family of exactly solvable non-unitary conformal interfaces is constructed on the lattice in unitary CFTs via analytic continuation, leading to a non-unitary Cardy condition and logarithmic entanglement with generally complex effective central charge.
Making complex CFTs real: The two-dimensional Potts model for $Q>4$ and complex $Q$
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abstract
The two-dimensional $Q$-state Potts model with real couplings has a first-order transition for $Q>4$. Starting from a triangular-lattice Potts model with two- and three-spin interactions, we study an equivalent loop model in which $Q$ is a continuous parameter. By a combination of analytical and numerical arguments, we show that this loop model allows for the collision of a critical and a tricritical fixed point at $Q=4$. These then emerge as a pair of complex conformally invariant theories at $Q>4$, or even complex $Q$, for suitable complex coupling constants. We conjecture that all conformal data (such as the central charge, critical exponents, and three-point structure constants) can be obtained by analytic continuation of known exact results for the loop model with $Q \le 4$. This conjecture is checked, both for real $Q>4$ and for $Q \in \mathbb{C}$, by extensive transfer-matrix computations and comparison to previous studies for $Q=5$.
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2026 2verdicts
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Analytic continuation of marginal couplings produces complex CFTs, with no genuinely complex rational CFTs existing, and exact defect results verified in non-Hermitian Ising and fermion chains.
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Exactly solvable non-unitary conformal interfaces in unitary CFTs
An SL(2,C)-parametrized family of exactly solvable non-unitary conformal interfaces is constructed on the lattice in unitary CFTs via analytic continuation, leading to a non-unitary Cardy condition and logarithmic entanglement with generally complex effective central charge.