Weyl anomalies for conformal defects

Abstract

In this talk, I will cover recent progress made toward characterizing and classifying extended objects (defects) in conformal field theories through anomalies.  In particular, I will discuss the Weyl anomaly for two- and four-dimensional conformal defects, and I will show how defect Weyl anomaly coefficients can be computed using correlation functions and holographically.  I will demonstrate the utility of these methods in computing some of the 29 defect Weyl anomaly coefficients for monodromy defects in six-dimensional free field theories and for AdS₅ probe branes in AdS_d+1.