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Theory Seminar

Seminars are at 2pm in Room 179 CP Building unless otherwise indicated.

Time Dependent Holography

    One of the most important results emerging from string theory is the gauge gravity
duality (AdS/CFT correspondence) which tells us that certain problems in particular
gravitational backgrounds can be exactly mapped to a particular dual gauge theory
a quantum theory very similar to the one explaining the interactions between funda-
mental subatomic particles. The chief merit of the duality is that a difficult problem
in one theory can be mapped to a simpler and solvable problem in the other theory.
The duality can be used both ways.
     Most of the current theoretical framework is suited to study equilibrium systems,
or systems where time dependence is at most adiabatic. However in the real world,
systems are almost always out of equilibrium. Generically these scenarios are de-
scribed by quenches, where a parameter of the theory is made time dependent. In
this dissertation I describe some of the work done in the context of studying quantum
quench using the AdS/CFT correspondence. We recover certain universal scaling
type of behavior as the quenching is done through a quantum critical point. Another
question that has been explored in the dissertation is time dependence of the gravity
theory. Present cosmological observations indicate that our universe is accelerating
and is described by a spacetime called de-Sitter(dS). In 2011 there had been a spec-
ulation over a possible duality between de-Sitter gravity and a particular field theory
(Euclidean SP(N) CFT). However a concrete realization of this proposition was still
lacking. Here we explicitly derive the dS/CFT duality using well known methods in
field theory. We discovered that the time dimension emerges naturally in the deriva-
tion. We also describe further applications and extensions of dS/CFT.

 

Date:
-
Location:
CP171
Event Series:

Revisiting soliton contributions to perturbative amplitudes

It is often said that soliton contributions to perturbative processes in QFT are exponentially suppressed by a form-factor. We will provide a derivation of this form-factor by studying the soliton-antisoliton pair-production amplitude. This reduces to the calculation of a matrix element in the quantum mechanics on the soliton moduli space. We will investigate the conditions under which the latter leads to exponential suppression. We will also discuss how it suggests that the instanton-solitons of N = 2 SYM in 5D will not be suppressed and the implications for its relation to the (2,0) theory in 6D.

Date:
-
Location:
CP179
Event Series:

POSTPONED: Calculating the Casimir energy of an arbitrary smooth compact surface.

The introduction of a thin conducting shell into vacuum changes the electromagnetic mode structure.  This modifies the zero point energy of space, so that there is an energy associated with the shape and size of the object.   The value of this Casimir self-energy has hitherto been known only for the sphere and the infinite cylinder. However,  Balian and Duplantier have given a route to its calculation for an arbitrary shape.   I will explain their method and my implementation of it, and give some examples: ellipsoid, doughnut, pancake, cucumber, and cube with rounded edges.

Date:
-
Location:
CP179
Event Series:
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