Higher-Spin Currents, Operator Mixing and UV Asymptotics in Large-<i>N</i> QCD-like Theories

Abstract

We extend to operator mixing—specifically, to higher-spin twist-2 operators—the asymptotic theorem on the ultraviolet asymptotics of the spectral representation of 2-point correlators of multiplicatively renormalizable operators in large-N confining QCD-like theories. The extension is based on a recent differential geometric approach to operator mixing that involves the Poincaré-Dulac theorem and allows us to reduce generically the operator mixing to the multiplicatively renormalizable case, provided that γ0β0 is diagonalizable and a certain nonresonant condition for its eigenvalues holds according to the Poincaré-Dulac theorem, with γ0 and β0 the one-loop coefficients of the anomalous dimension matrix and beta function respectively. Relatedly, we solve a conundrum about the generic nonconservation of higher-spin currents versus the conservation—up to contact terms—of the corresponding free propagators in the spectral representation of 2-point correlators of higher-spin operators of pure integer spin to the leading large-N order.

Keywords

• higher-spin currents
• spectral representation
• large-N limit
• ultraviolet asymptotics
• Poincaré-Dulac theorem