Archive of IAS Monday High Energy Theory Seminars

Mar
11
2024

IAS High Energy Theory Seminar

Superstring Partition Functions in AdS3
Mukund Rangamani
2:30pm|Bloomberg Lecture Hall (IAS) & Zoom

Abstract: I will describe the one-loop partition function for strings propagating on AdS3 geometries with NS-NS flux (for generic values of AdS radius in string units). The essential ingredients that go into this analysis have been known for a while...

Feb
12
2024

IAS High Energy Theory Seminar

Semi-Classical Physics at Large Quantum Numbers
Zohar Komargodski
2:30pm|Bloomberg Lecture Hall (IAS) & Zoom

Abstract: We will discuss excitations with large spin and/or large particle number. For conformal theories this corresponds to investigating particular trajectories of heavy operators. 

We find trajectories with large approximate degeneracy and show...

Jan
29
2024

IAS High Energy Theory Seminar

Fuzzy Sphere Regularization of 3D CFTs
Yin-Chen He
2:30pm|Bloomberg Lecture Hall (IAS) & Zoom

Abstract: Conformal Field Theory (CFT) represents a class of quantum field theories that has profound applications across various physics domains, from critical phenomena in statistical mechanics to quantum matter, quantum gravity, and string theory...

Dec
04
2023

IAS High Energy Theory Seminar

The Black Hole/String Transition in anti de Sitter Space
Erez Urbach
2:30pm|Bloomberg Lecture Hall (IAS) & Zoom

Abstract: String stars, or Horowitz-Polchinski solutions, are string theory saddles with normalizable condensates of thermal-winding strings. In the past, string stars were offered as a possible description of stringy (Euclidean) black holes in...

Nov
20
2023

IAS High Energy Theory Seminar

The M-theory Three-Form and ADE Gauge Symmetry
Martijn Wijnholt
2:30pm|Bloomberg Lecture Hall (IAS) & Zoom

Abstract: M- and F-theory compactifications with ADE singularities give rise to non-abelian ADE gauge symmetries. The physical explanation for this phenomenon involves M2-branes wrapped on vanishing cycles. We consider an alternative approach which...

Oct
30
2023

IAS High Energy Theory Seminar

Refined Instanton Analysis for Asymptotically Free QFTs and Mass Gap
Mithat Ünsal
2:30pm|Bloomberg Lecture Hall (IAS) & Zoom

Abstract: Instantons are an important source of nonperturbative effects in quantum field theories, but their role in asymptotically free theories has not been well understood. In this talk, we will present a new approach to instanton analysis in the...

Oct
16
2023

IAS High Energy Theory Seminar

A New Spin on Long-Range Interactions: Continuous Spin Particles and Predictions for their Interactions
Natalia Toro
2:30pm|Bloomberg Lecture Hall (IAS) & Zoom

Abstract: Kinematically, massless particles in Lorentz-invariant theories are classified by a dimensionful "spin scale"ρ  (2nd Casimir invariant) that characterizes helicity states' mixing under little group transformations.  However, dynamics for...

Sep
25
2023

IAS High Energy Theory Seminar

Non-Linear Quantum Mechanics
David E. Kaplan
2:30pm|Bloomberg Lecture Hall (IAS) & Zoom

Abstract: We add non-linear and state-dependent terms to the Hamiltonian of quantum field theory. The resulting low-energy theory, non-linear quantum mechanics, is causal, preserves probability and permits a consistent description of the process of...