Theoretical Physics Seminar: Matthias Gohlke

Theoretical Physics Seminar.
Speaker: Matthias Gohlke (Quantum what's the Matter).
Title: "Kitaev's honeycomb model: an exactly solvable quantum spin liquid"

Group Meeting Talk: Current Algebras and Celestial CFT Correlators

Title: Current Algebras and Celestial CFT Correlators

Speaker: Sudip Ghosh

Abstract: I will discuss the construction of a SL(2,C) current algebra using the subleading soft graviton theorem and the constraints imposed by this current algebra via null state relations on the spectrum of the putative CFT dual of Einstein gravity in (3+1)-d asymptotically flat spacetimes.

Theoretical Physics Seminar: 'Hannes Schoenke

Theoretical Physics Seminar.
Speaker: 'Hannes Schoenke (Mathematics, Mechanics, Materials, and other aspects of M Theory).
Title: "A glimpse into the beauty of algebraic geometry (examples included!)"

Group Meeting Talk: Large N Phase Transitions and Small AdS-Schwarzschild Black Holes

Large N Phase Transitions and Small AdS-Schwarzschild Black Holes

Speaker: Sudip Ghosh

Abstract: We will discuss aspects of small AdS-Schwarzschild Black Holes in the context of the AdS/CFT correspondence. In particular we will consider issues related to dynamical instabilities of small black holes and their dual interpretation in the boundary gauge theory at large N. 

QG group meeting: boundary locality vs. higher-spin symmetry

QG group meeting.
Speaker: Yasha Neiman
Title: "Boundary locality vs. higher-spin symmetry"

Novel Perspectives in String Phenomenology

Domain Walls of N=1, D=4 Super Yang-Mills Theory

Title: How Domain Walls of N=1, D=4 SYM look like

Speaker: Dmitri Sorokin, University of Padua, Italy

Abstract: We review main features of the pure N=1, D=4 SYM with the gauge group SU(N) and its effective description by the Veneziano-Yankielowicz generalized sigma-model. We then indicate that the construction of BPS domain walls interpolating between different SYM vacua requires the presence of a dynamical membrane source. We will show how such a membrane is coupled to the SYM and present the explicit form of BPS domain walls which it creates in the Veneziano-Yankielowicz effective theory. In particular, we will describe 1/2 BPS domain wall configurations with |k| less than or equal to N/3, where k is the membrane charge that sets the "distance" between two distinct SUSY vacua. 

Reductionism, physics, mathematics and the mind

General-audience geek-out Zoom talk.
Speaker: Yasha Neiman.
Title: "Reductionism, physics, mathematics and the mind".

Quantization of folded strings in non-critical dimensions

Title: Quantization of folded strings in non-critical dimensions

Speaker: Dorin Weissmann

Abstract: I will talk about some problems that arise when attempting to quantize rotating strings semiclassically, in the critical and non-critical dimensions. The problems are divergences associated with folding points in the string. A rotating closed string is a basic system that suffers from this problem, and I show how we deal with it by treating the fold as a boundary and placing mass terms there. Based on an upcoming paper with J. Sonnenschein.

The spiritual art of Calculus and the union of Heaven and Earth

Seminar for general audience, about mankind's discovery of magic.
Speaker: Yasha Neiman.
Title: "The spiritual art of Calculus and the union of Heaven and Earth".