Physics

I will review a few recent papers on 4d, N=3 superconformal field theories. References: arXiv:1512.03524arXiv:1512.06434arXiv:1602.08638

We develop an effective field theory for dissipative fluids which governs the dynamics of long-lived gapless modes associated with conserved quantities. The resulting theory gives an action formulation of fluctuating hydrodynamics which incorporates...

Abstract: Soft theorems for the scattering of low energy photons and gravitons and cosmological consistency relations on the squeezed-limit correlation functions are both understood to be consequences of invariance under large gauge transformations...

Abstract: I'll review a few recent papers that discuss the subject in the title, focusing on results based on AdS/CFT.References:https://arxiv.org/abs/1603.09745http://arxiv.org/pdf/1510.07911.pdfhttps://arxiv.org/abs/1509.06374For background, see:h...

One can easily be frustrated by the tremendous redundancy in possible physical description. By this I mean the freedom to choose gauge, make field redefinitions, add any amount of auxiliary spectator matter, and the such. Happily we can exploit...

The 4d superconformal index is a partition function (somewhat analogous to the quantum mechanical Witten index, or the 2d SCFT elliptic genus) that counts supersymmetric operators in 4d superconformal field theories. As a partition function it...

I will describe a method for determining the spins of framed BPS states supported on line defects in 4d N=2 theories of class S. Via the 2d-4d correspondence, this amounts to constructing quantum holonomies on a punctured Riemann surface. The main...

This talk will describe recent work on the classification of elliptic Calabi-Yau threefolds and fourfolds, and consequences for the physics of supersymmetric F-theory vacua. The mathematical theory of minimal surfaces and the physically-motivated...