Southeastern regional
mathematical string theory meeting

Next meeting:

Speakers tentatively include Sophia Domokos (NY Institute of Tech.), Richard Nally (MIT), Grant Remmen (NYU).

Tentative schedule:

• Friday November 7: Optional informal dinner at Zeppoli's at 810 University City Boulevard in Blacksburg, at 7:30 pm. (If interested in joining, please contact ES by noon on Thurs Nov 6.)

• Saturday November 8: All talks will be in Robeson 210.
  • 10:30 - 11:30: Sophia Domokos (NY Institute of Tech.), "Vacua and Solitons of Defect (C)FTs"
    • Abstract: Brane intersections have long been the basis of holography as applied to quantum field theories. In addition to shedding light on strongly coupled defect- and boundary-CFTS, brane models lie at the core of many holographic QCD and CMT models. In this talk, I will describe our results from the past several years in supersymmetric defect-(C)FTs based on brane intersections, including a special limit we probe using holography, results from the gravity side of the duality for non-trivial flux vacua and a zoo of unusual soliton states, as well as progress on identifying new soliton states from the field theory side of the duality. (Based on work with A. Royston.)

  • 11:30 - 1:00: lunch

  • 1:00-2:00: Richard Nally (MIT), "Classifying Elliptically Fibered Toric Hypersurface CY3s"
    • Abstract: The largest known set of Calabi-Yau threefolds originates from triangulations of the 473,800,776 four-dimensional reflexive polytopes constructed by Kreuzer and Skarke. Earlier work by Huang and Taylor showed that all but 29,223 of these polytopes admit at least one elliptic fibration. In this talk, we enumerate all such fibrations, finding a total of 2.25 billion fibrations, and classify their fiber and base types. We comment on generic and exotic features of these fibrations, such 6D SCFTs and gauge groups hosted on nontoric divisors. We conclude by discussing elliptic fibrations in the actual Calabi-Yaus built out of these polytopes. This talk is based on forthcoming work with Fatima Abbasi and Wati Taylor.

  • 2:15-3:15: Grant Remmen (NYU), "Strings from Almost Nothing"
    • Abstract: Is string theory unique? String amplitudes famously accomplish several extraordinary mathematical feats in order to UV-complete gravity, including exhibiting an infinite tower of spinning states and dual resonance. In this talk, I will show that string amplitudes can be uniquely bootstrapped from first principles, using techniques from the modern amplitudes program and quantum field theory to constrain the possibilities for quantum gravity from the bottom up. I will identify physical criteria for scattering amplitudes from which string theory—including its spectrum—emerges as the only consistent answer.

  
  

  Discrimination / diversity:

  The organizers of this meeting are committed to building a diverse, welcoming, and inclusive research environment. We support the non-discrimination statement of the AWM, which can be found here. Any attendee or speaker is welcome to contact any of the organizers directly if he or she feels harassed or excluded.

  If you are an individual with a disability and desire an accommodation, please contact Eric Sharpe (VT office phone 540-381-0185) at least 10 business days prior to the event.

  
  

  Coffee:

  For visitors to the area:

  • For those flying in, the closest airport is Roanoke-Blacksburg Regional Airport (ROA).
  • VT:
  • Maps of VT's campus can be found here.
  • Nearby hotels include, for example,
    • The Inn at Virginia Tech,
    • Hyatt Place Blacksburg/University,
    • Marriott Residence Inn
    • Hilton Garden Inn Blacksburg,
    • Holiday Inn Express Blacksburg-University,
    • Main Street Inn.
  • On weekends (between Fri 5 pm and Mon 7 am), parking is free in any regular lot, unless otherwise marked.
  • A map with Robeson Hall, local hotels, and coffee shops marked explicitly is here.

  Funding:

  We have (limited) funding available to reimburse students and postdocs, both those speaking and those merely attending who, because of distance travelled, need to spend a night in a hotel, courtesy of NSF grant PHY-2014086.
  IMPORTANT: If you wish to be reimbursed, see here for the paperwork you will need to provide, and also let Eric Sharpe know that you will wish to be reimbursed.
  

  Previous regional meetings:

  An archive of talks at previous meetings is here.
  

  Other upcoming meetings of interest:

  A list of upcoming events in VA can be found here.

  In addition, September 19-21 is the Richmond geometry meeting at Virginia Commonwealth University, which has some string and string-adjacent talks.
  
  

  Blacksburg area attractions:

  For those not acquainted with the area, there are a number of things to see. In no particular order, a few include:
  • Taubman Museum of Art
  • Center in the Square
  • Virginia Museum of Transportation
  • Link Museum
  • Historic Smithfield Plantation
  • Chateau Morrisette Winery and Restaurant
  • Cascades Recreation Area
  • Peaks of Otter
  • Blue Ridge Parkway
  • Dragon's Tooth Trail
  • Natural Bridge
  • American Shakespeare Center