Abstract. The behaviour of boundary conditions under relevant bulk perturbations is studied for the Virasoro minimal models. In particular, we consider the bulk deformation by the least relevant bulk field which interpolates between the mth and (m − 1)th unitary minimal model. In the presence of a boundary, this bulk flow induces an RG flow on the boundary, which ensures that the resulting boundary condition is conformal in the (m − 1)th model. By combining perturbative RG techniques with insights from defects and results about non-perturbative boundary flows, we determine the endpoint of the flow, i.e. the boundary condition to which an arbitrary boundary condition of the mth theory flows to.

PACS numbers: 11.10.Hi, 11.10.Kk, 11.25.Hf

Print publication: Issue 49 (11 December 2009)
Received 7 September 2009, in final form 26 October 2009
Published 25 November 2009