High Energy Theory Seminar

The Wilsonian paradigm suggests universality of quantum field theory in the infrared. Interestingly, it also suggests universality of quantum mechanics (d=1 quantum field theory) in the ultraviolet. This suggests a study of the landscape of the infrared and the robustness of the ultraviolet. I will introduce and solve an infinite class of integrable deformations to quantum mechanics, focusing on a particular deformation inspired by the T-Tbar deformation of two-dimensional quantum field theory. In the context of holography, I will show how these deformations modify Jackiw-Teitelboim gravity in AdS_2. I will also present an equivalent description of the T-Tbar deformation in terms of coupling to worldline gravity. Applications to the Schwarzian theory and SYK will be discussed.