[Zoom Seminar] Interacting QFT on causal sets | Dr. Emma Albertini (Imperial College London)

The speaker: Dr. Emma Albertini (Imperial College London)

Title:  Interacting QFT on causal sets

Abstract:

Causal set theory is an approach to quantum gravity in which spacetime is fundamentally discrete at the Planck scale and takes the form of a Lorentzian lattice, or "causal set", from which continuum spacetime emerges in a large-scale (low-energy) approximation. After reviewing the formulation of free quantum field theory on causal sets, I will present new developments by adding interactions. I will derive a diagrammatic expansion for in-in correlators in local scalar field theories with finite polynomial interactions and outline how these correlators can be computed using the double-path integral which acts as a generating functional for the in-in correlators. Moreover, I will propose a generating functional for in-out correlators and define a notion of scattering amplitudes on causal sets. I will conclude by describing how these formal developments can be implemented to compute early universe observables under the assumption that spacetime is fundamentally discrete.

Date and time: 21st January Tuesday at 17:30

Location: L4F15