Physics

Modern methods for computing scattering amplitudes getenormous mileage out of knowledge of (or, often, even assumptions about) their singularity structure. I will demonstrate how, in the case of N=4 SYM theory, information about this singularity...

There is no doubt that there is a revolution going on in machine learning and artificial intelligence, but what does it mean for physics? Is it all hype, or will it transform the way we think about and do physics?I will describe machine learning...

Boundary state black holes are single sided pure black holeswith an End-of-the-World Brane cutting off the spacetime in the interior. I demonstrate that certain Hamiltonian deformations tuned to the black hole microstate inject negative energy...

Goldstone modes arising from spontaneously broken symmetries can be added to a hydrodynamic description of charge transport to model quantum critical effects in metals from a symmetry point of view. I will discuss the setup and the effects of weak...

As you may have heard, the LIGO collaboration is planning a major announcement on Monday, at 10 AM Eastern. The rumor is that they have found a pair of colliding neutron stars. We will have a viewing party of the press conference in the PCTS...

The set of low-energy effective theories that do not admit an ultraviolet completion in string theory is known as the ``swampland." Developing criteria to determine which effective theories belong in the string landscape and which ones belong in...

In recent years, varieties of index-like quantitites have been computed by exact path integral, a.k.a. the localization. For gauge theories, the computations reduces to contour integrals, famously riddled with subtleties. However, the interpretation...

Causality in quantum field theory is encoded in the averaged null energy condition. I will describe how, in large-N CFTs, this energy condition is replaced by a stronger inequality involving the spectrum of the length operator in the dual AdS. This...

Consistency with quantum gravity can have significant consequences on low energy physics. For instance, using the Weak Gravity Conjecture, it has been recently argued by Ooguri and Vafa that non supersymmetric stable AdS vacua are incompatible with...