Thomas Dumitrescu (Harvard) “What is Quantum Field Theory? – New Tools for Exploring Strong Coupling and Beyond” SPECIAL LOCATION: 50 Birge

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Abstract: Quantum field theory is a unified language that successfully describes many diverse phenomena in different areas of physics. Nevertheless many interesting theories that arise in nature remain poorly understood, in part because there are no general tools for analyzing them in the strong coupling regime. In this talk I will review some recent progress in developing such tools, focusing on theories with supersymmetry. In addition to their role in particle physics, supersymmetric theories are an ideal theoretical laboratory for deepening our understanding of quantum field theory. I will present results ranging from general constraints on renormalization group flows in diverse dimensions to the construction of new, exactly computable observables defined by placing field theories on curved manifolds. Throughout I will emphasize various ways in which our understanding of quantum field theory is fundamentally incomplete and highlight possible future directions.