Chris Akers (Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) ” Multipartite edge modes and tensor networks”
Abstract: Holographic tensor networks model AdS/CFT, but so far they have been limited by involving only systems that are very different from gravity. Unfortunately, we cannot straightforwardly discretize gravity to incorporate it, because that would break diffeomorphism invariance. In this talk I will present a resolution, based on upcoming work with Ronak Soni and Annie Y. Wei. We construct a … Read More
Luis Gabriel Carlos Bariuan (UC Berkeley) “Magnetic Braneworlds: Cosmology and Wormholes”
Abstract: In the past few years, holography has served as a powerful tool in describing strong gravitational phenomena. Recently, several works have started to apply these tools to Big Bang-Big Crunch cosmologies. In this talk, I will describe the explicit construction of holographic 4D braneworld cosmologies and 4D eternally traversable wormholes by embedding End of the World (ETW) branes in 5D … Read More
Catharina Stroppel (University of Bonn) “Towards a higher dimensional TQFT: a (braided) monoidal category of Soergel bimodules”
Starting from braided monoidal categories of quantum group representations and categorification results one comes to the question whether categorification can be used to construct a corresponding braided monoidal 2-category. In this talk we start from the observation that the Hecke algebras for all symmetric groups taken together form a braided monoidal category that controls all quantum link invariants of type … Read More
Jonathan Sorce (MIT) “The ANEC from Poincaré invariance “
Abstract: I will describe a simple, direct proof of the averaged null energy condition in Minkowski space time, using only Poincaré invariance and without regulating the continuum theory. Based on work in progress with Witten.
Pietro Pelliconi – “Gravity as a mesoscopic system”
Abstract: We employ a probabilistic mesoscopic description to draw conceptual and quantitative analogies between Brownian motion and late-time fluctuations of thermal correlation functions in generic chaotic systems respecting ETH. We apply this formalism to the case of semiclassical gravity in AdS3, showing that wormhole contributions can be naturally identified as moments of stochastic processes. Adopting this perspective shows that semiclassical gravity … Read More
Jacob Leedom Czech Academy of Sciences (FZU) “Spotting (String) Axions in the Cosmos”
Abstract: Axions are generic predictions of string compactifications and are one of the most promising avenues to tie UV physics to experiments. However, stringy axions need not couple directly to the Standard Model and so their detection may depend on gravitational signatures. In this talk, I will describe how “spectator” axions coupled to hidden gauge groups via Chern-Simons interactions could … Read More
Joaquin Turiaci (University of Washington) ” “Revisiting Small Black Holes””
Abstract: Black holes with two charges in string theory are singular due to vanishing horizon area at extremality. Two seemingly contradictory resolutions are available in the literature. On one hand, it has been argued that higher-derivative effects create a string-sized extremal horizon. On the other hand, it has been argued that before such a small black hole even forms, there is a transition … Read More
Reuven Balkin (UCSC) “Probing the CP properties of ALP couplings using 3-body neutral kaon decays”
Abstract: Flavor probes, in particular rare kaon decays, provide some of the strongest constraints on ALP couplings. Rare neutral kaon decays also provide a unique probe to the CP properties of ALP couplings. In this talk I will present a first calculation of the 3-body neutral kaon decay rates, first showing how the required flavor- and CP-violating couplings are generated from … Read More