Physics

I discuss how to combine the physical constraints, in particular the operator product expansion for Wilson loops, with the technical power of the "symbol" of pure transcendental functions. The combination can be used to evaluate the (symbol for the...

The holographic principle is puzzling: how can it be that degrees of freedom on the boundary of a spacetime region give rise to approximately local physics in the interior? I will review some aspects of the emergence of local AdS physics from the...

In this talk I will attempt to answer a simple question, "why do polylogs appear in loop level scattering amplitudes?". There will be an interesting twist as we will find not a single answer, but two. One will be based on an analysis of branch...

We provide dramatic evidence that `Mellin space' is the natural home for correlation functions in CFTs with weakly coupled bulk duals. In Mellin space, CFT correlators have poles corresponding to an OPE decomposition into `left' and `right' sub...

We introduce a new numerical algorithm based on semidefinite programming to efficiently compute bounds on operator dimensions, central charges, and OPE coefficients in 4D conformal and N=1 superconformal field theories. Using our algorithm, we...