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Accepted · first revision · record

Title: Do complex fixed points explain the pseudocritical drift at deconfined transitions?
Plain: One explanation of the slow drift is that the true critical point has moved slightly into complex values of the couplings, so the system behaves almost critically over a very large range of lengths. This idea predicts specific scaling dimensions that can be computed and checked.
Precise: For the $SO(5)$-symmetric Neel-VBS problem (NCCP1 or QED3 with $N_f = 2$ description), test the scenario of two nearly merged complex conformal fixed points: compute the real and imaginary parts of the scaling dimensions of the leading singlet and of the $SO(5)$ vector and tensor operators, and the predicted length $\xi*$ beyond which first-order behavior appears. An answer gives these numbers and a quantitative comparison with lattice drifts of $\nu$ and $\eta$.
Settled by: Fuzzy-sphere or non-Hermitian lattice computations of complex scaling dimensions that quantitatively reproduce the lattice drifts of $\nu$ and $\eta$ and the observed first-order length scale.
Kind: well-posed
Answer type: value
References: (empty)
Literature status: contested
Status note: Fuzzy-sphere studies since 2023 report approximate conformal symmetry and operator spectra consistent with nearly real complex fixed points; a quantitative match to the lattice drifts is lacking.
Posed since: (empty)