Triangle Seminars

Week of 14 Oct 2013 - 20 Oct 2013

Tuesday, 15 Oct 2013

TBA
Joan Simon (Edinburgh)
Venue: City U. · Room: CG05 · Time: 16:00 · Type: Regular Seminar

Wednesday, 16 Oct 2013

3D Bosonization and Chern-Simons Vector Models
📍 London
Guy Gur-Ari (Weizmann Institute)
Venue: KCL · Room: S-1.04 · Time: 13:15 · Type: Regular Seminar
Abstract:
Chern-Simons theories coupled to vector matter exhibit interesting phenomena. In the planar limit, these theories are conjectured to be holographically dual to generalized theories of gravity, involving high-spin fields. This is a weak-weak holographic duality that is in some aspects very simple, and may serve as a toy model for deepening our understanding of both holography and string theory. On the CFT side, exact calculations performed in the planar limit, along with constraints imposed by a ‘slightly-broken’ high-spin symmetry, have led to many exact results. These have uncovered the details of a 3D bosonization duality, relating theories with bosonic matter to theories with fermionic matter. I will present dynamical evidence for this duality.
Posted by: KCL
A New Class of QFTs: from D-branes to On-Shell Diagrams
Sebastian Franco (Durham)
Venue: IC · Room: H503 · Time: 14:00 · Type: Regular Seminar
Abstract:
Over the last decade, we have witnessed remarkable progress in our understanding of Quantum Field Theories. New insights have emerged from a multitude of fronts, ranging from the Gauge/Gravity Correspondence to Integrability. In this seminar I will discuss Bipartite Field Theories (BFTs), a new class of QFTs embodying many of these new approaches. BFTs are 4d, N=1 quiver gauge theories with Lagrangians defined by bipartite graphs on Riemann surfaces. Remarkably, they underlie a wide spectrum of interesting physical systems, including: D-branes probing Calabi-Yau manifolds, their mirror configurations, integrable systems in (0+1) dimensions and scattering amplitudes in N=4 SYM. I will introduce new techniques for studying these gauge theories. I will explain how their dynamics is captured graphically and the interesting emergence of concepts such as Calabi-Yau manifolds, the Grassmannian and cluster algebras in the classification of IR fixed points. Finally, I will introduce a new framework for analyzing general systems of D3 and D7-branes over toric Calabi-Yau 3-folds. These ideas can be exploited for embedding BFTs in String Theory but have a much wider range of applicability.
Posted by: IC

Thursday, 17 Oct 2013

Holographic Conductivity
David Tong (Cambridge)
Venue: QMW · Room: Room 208 · Time: 14:00 · Type: Regular Seminar
Abstract:
I'll review some progress over the past 18 months in computing Ohm's law using holography.
Posted by: QMW

Week of 14 Oct 2013 - 20 Oct 2013