hybrid model,   (https://berkeley.zoom.us/j/370438207) to watch the seminar live. Abstract: Recent work established necessary conditions for entanglement islands to appear in a flat Friedmann-Robertson-Walker universe entangled with a reference spacetime in a thermofield-double state. In this talk, I will examine the effects of spatial curvature on the existence of islands in an otherwise similar cosmological setting. I will discuss a new … Read More

Abstract: Topological twists of 3d N=4 gauge theories admit boundary conditions that support vertex operator algebras, initially constructed by Costello and Gaiotto. I will review this construction, then discuss current work (with A. Ballin, T. Creutzig, and W. Niu) proving equivalences of these vertex algebras under abelian 3d mirror symmetry, and relating their module categories (a.k.a. bulk Wilson lines and … Read More

Abstract: In recent years, a new holographic paradigm has emerged in which simple theories of gravity in low dimensions are dual to statistical ensembles of quantum mechanical systems rather than particular quantum systems. However, more realistic holographic dualities in higher dimensions are not expected to fundamentally involve microscopic averaging. Nevertheless, there are apparently contributions to the semiclassical gravitational path integral that are … Read More