Fusion of conformal defects in four dimensions

Abstract

We consider two conformal defects close to each other in a free theory, and study what happens as the distance between them goes to zero. This limit is the same as zooming out, and the two defects have fused to another defect. As we zoom in we find a non-conformal effective action for the fused defect. Among other things this means that we cannot in general decompose the two-point correlator of two defects in terms of other conformal defects. We prove the fusion using the path integral formalism by treating the defects as sources for a scalar in the bulk.