High Energy Theory Seminar

In this talk, I will discuss the idea that the exact one-loop free energy of the static patch of D-dimensional de Sitter space can be computed as a simple integral transform of an SO(1;D) bulk character corrected by an SO(1; D-2) edge character, for fields of arbitrary mass and spin. The bulk character captures the particle content of the theory and counts quasinormal modes in the bulk. The edge character counts edge modes on the horizon. I will also show the application of this formalism in 4D and 3D dS Vasiliev gravity. In the 4D case, after summing over spins, there is a huge cancellation between the bulk and edge characters, leaving the character of a scalar living in three dimensions. In the 3D case, I will discuss its relation with Chern Simons theory.