Russian doll renormalization group and Kosterlitz-Thouless flows

We investigate the previously proposed cyclic regime of the Kosterlitz-Thouless renormalization group (RG) flows. The period of one cycle is computed in terms of the RG invariant. Using bosonization, we show that the theory has U-q(<(sl(2))over cap>) quantum affine symmetry, with q real. Based on this symmetry, we study two possible S-matrices for the theory, differing only by overall scalar factors. We argue that one S-matrix corresponds to a continuum limit of the XXZ spin chain in the anti-ferromagnetic domain Delta < -1. The latter S-matrix has a periodicity in energy consistent with the cyclicity of the RG. We conjecture that this S-matrix describes the cyclic regime of the Kosterlitz-Thouless flows. The other S-matrix we investigate is an analytic continuation of the usual sine-Gordon one. It has an infinite number of resonances with masses that have a Russian doll scaling behavior that is also consistent with the period of the RG cycles computed from the beta-function. Closure of the bootstrap for this S-matrix leads to an infinite number of particles of higher spin with a mass formula suggestive of a string theory. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.