A Conformal Field Theory Primer

Conformal field theory (CFT) is a mathematical tool used to solve problems in systems with scale invariant symmetries. The subject has a deficit of under-graduate level resources, a gap which my capstone project aims to fill through the creation of a CFT primer. To understand CFT, we explore what physicists mean by fields. A field is a function that takes in a position and returns some mathematical object. A good example of a field is a temperature field. In the temperature field each point in space would have a number value corresponding to the temperature at that point. The word conformal in CFT refers to a family of symmetry the field must obey. If the coordinates the field is built over can be translated, rotated, dilated, or locally rotated and dilated without change to the output the field is said to be a conformal field. My primer on CFT is aimed at undergraduate physics majors who have interest in theoretical physics, but are not yet ready for graduate level material.

Working on this project exposed me to the world of theoretical physics research. I spent a large part of my time reading papers and writing, a much different experience to the previous physics research I had been a part of. I am excited to do more theoretical physics research in the being either too close or too far, and the capstone program not catching the data points. I would like to thank Dr. Shi and the Department for giving me this opportunity to gain more hands-on experience. After graduation, I plan to move back home to Monterey and get my teaching license. I would like to become a high school science teacher and give back help to the public school district that helped me get into college and show students that being a first generation college student is possible. future. I have been accepted into a PhD physics program at University of California Irvine. I hope to study theoretical high energy physics with a focus on physics beyond the standard model. I am looking forward to applying what I have learned here at Sonoma State to my PhD studies at Irvine.