Triangle Seminars
Monday, 2 Nov 2026
Lonti: Bootstrapping String Theory (4/4)
📍 London
Shai Chester
(Imperial College)
Abstract:
We will discuss how to bootstrap string theory in AdS, using N=4 SYM as a concrete example. The first lecture will review the basic ingredients of AdS/CFT: the definitions of AdS and CFT, the correspondence between Kaluza–Klein modes and single-trace operators, and the relation between string scattering in AdS and correlation functions of Kaluza–Klein modes in the CFT. The second lecture will focus on the stress-tensor multiplet four-point function, including its conformal block expansion, the constraints imposed by superconformal Ward identities, and its formulation in Mellin space. The third lecture will introduce the flat-space limit, explain how it acts on the conformal block expansion, and discuss the spectrum of single-trace operators that survives at strong coupling. In the final lecture, we will go beyond the flat-space limit and study the first AdS correction. We will introduce a worldsheet ansatz for this correction and show how matching it to the conformal block expansion fixes the correction completely.
We will discuss how to bootstrap string theory in AdS, using N=4 SYM as a concrete example. The first lecture will review the basic ingredients of AdS/CFT: the definitions of AdS and CFT, the correspondence between Kaluza–Klein modes and single-trace operators, and the relation between string scattering in AdS and correlation functions of Kaluza–Klein modes in the CFT. The second lecture will focus on the stress-tensor multiplet four-point function, including its conformal block expansion, the constraints imposed by superconformal Ward identities, and its formulation in Mellin space. The third lecture will introduce the flat-space limit, explain how it acts on the conformal block expansion, and discuss the spectrum of single-trace operators that survives at strong coupling. In the final lecture, we will go beyond the flat-space limit and study the first AdS correction. We will introduce a worldsheet ansatz for this correction and show how matching it to the conformal block expansion fixes the correction completely.
Posted by: Damian Galante
Wednesday, 4 Nov 2026
TBA
📍 London
Silvia Georgescu
(King's Coll. London)
Abstract:
TBA
TBA
Posted by: Kiarash Naderi
Thursday, 5 Nov 2026
TBA
📍 London
Gurtej Kanwar
(University of Edinburgh)
Abstract:
TBA
TBA
Posted by: Jack Araz
TBD
📍 London
Andreas Stergiou
(KCL)
Abstract:
TBD.
TBD.
Posted by: Kymani Armstrong-Williams