IAS High Energy Theory Seminar

Abstract: I will describe a double scaled matrix and tensor integral whose Feynman diagrams can be organized in a 3d topological expansion which agrees term by term with partition functions of 3d gravity. The integral is taken over CFT2 data, and the limiting potential imposes bootstrap constraints. The conjecture that the result is precisely the sum over topology of 3d gravity implies infinitely many combinatorial/topological relations on gluings of 3-manifolds. I will also speculate on some aspects of the non-perturbative completion of the topological expansion.