High Energy Theory Seminar

Reparametrization modes provide a way of describing universal physics of energy-momentum exchanges in CFTs. Drawing inspiration from effective field theory methods and the SYK model, I will argue that this perspective offers a useful computational and conceptual framework. For example, stress tensor contributions to conformal blocks can be systematically organized in terms of reparametrization mode exchanges, thus leading to a simple and efficient diagrammatic perturbation theory at large central charge. To illustrate this method, I will discuss some known stress tensor conformal blocks in various dimensions, and will also present a new result regarding the six-point "identity block" in 2d CFTs. I will also mention an application to thermal physics in higher dimensions and argue that the theory of reparametrization modes provides useful intuition for the physics underlying quantum chaos in Rindler space.