Southeastern regional
mathematical string theory meeting
This is the webpage for the southeastern regional mathematical string theory
meeting, held every six months (early April and early October), often at
Duke University but occasionally elsewhere.
Next meeting:
The fall 2018 meeting will be held on Saturday October 13
at James Madison University (JMU) in Harrisonburg, VA.
If you are interested in speaking at a future meeting, please contact
Eric Sharpe.
Tentative schedule:
- Friday Oct 12: optional dinnner at, tentatively,
Clementine Cafe (153 S Main St,
Harrisonburg, VA), at 7:30 pm. (If the restaurant's parking lot is full,
note that there is a
municipal parking deck
on the other side of the same block, and after 7 pm, no time limit.)
- Saturday Oct 13: (All talks will be in Physics-Chemistry building room
PHCH2212.)
- 10:00-11:00: Po-Shen Hsin (Princeton),
"2-group global symmetry in QFT":
- Abstract:
Quantum field theory can have 2-group symmetry that combines 0-form and 1-form symmetries. I will give examples of QFT with 2-group symmetry. In particular, I will discuss the anomaly of 2-group symmetry, and explore its consequences for the renormalization group flow.
- talk slides (pdf)
- 11:15-12:15: Mykola Dedushenko (Caltech),
"Gluing in QFT and Boundary Localization":
- Abstract:
I will revisit the cutting an gluing law in local quantum field theory. In particular, gluing operation in Lagrangian theories can be represented as a path integral over a space of certain 'polarized' boundary conditions. This path integral, although being terribly non-local, can sometimes be simplified in supersymmetric theories using the localization techniques. This allows to obtain interesting gluing formulas that can be further applied to various problems, as will be discussed in more details during the talk.
- photo,
photo,
photo,
photo,
photo,
photo,
photo
- 12:30-2: Lunch,
- 2:00-3:00: Cynthia Keeler
(Arizona State),
"Partition Functions via Quasinormal Mode Methods: AdS, Warped AdS, and
Large Dimensions":
- Abstract:
After a review of the quasinormal mode method
for partition function calculation developed by Denef, Hartnoll, and
Sachdev, we extend the method to consider even-dimensional AdS spaces,
Warped AdS spaces, and black holes in the large dimension limit. If time
permits, we will also discuss the relationship between the quasinormal mode
method and the heat kernel method.
- photo,
photo,
photo,
photo
- talk slides (pdf)
- 3:15-4:15: Fedor Popov (Princeton),
"Traversable wormholes in four dimensions":
- Abstract:
We present a wormhole solution in four dimensions. It is a solution of an
Einstein Maxwell theory plus charged massless fermions. The fermions give
rise to a negative Casimir-like energy, which makes the wormhole possible.
It is a long wormhole that does not lead to causality violations in the
ambient space. It can be viewed as a pair of entangled near extremal black
holes with an interaction term generated by the exchange of fermion fields.
- photo,
photo,
photo
- talk slides (pptx)
- 4:30-5:30: Andy Royston
(Penn State Fayette).
"Wall crossing from Dirac Zero modes":
- Abstract:
In the semiclassical quantization of 4D N=2 super-Yang-Mills, (framed) BPS states are represented by zero mode wavefunctions of certain Dirac-like operators on the moduli space of (singular) monopoles. A direct analysis of these Dirac operators utilizing the asymptotic metric on monopole moduli space leads to a physically intuitive derivation of the primitive wall-crossing formula for BPS states. The derivation holds modulo a technical assumption about the Fredholm properties of these operators. Proving this assumption and showing how it must be modified in the non-primitive case is an open problem that makes contact with recent developments in the mathematics literature on compactifications of monopole moduli spaces on manifolds with corners. Additionally, the physics derivation leads to a surprising prediction: the existence of completely stable non-BPS boundstates. This talk is based on work done in collaboration with Greg Moore and Daniel Brennan.
- photo,
photo,
photo,
photo,
photo,
photo
Some group photos from the fall 2018 meeting are
here,
here,
here,
here.
Some group photos from the spring 2018 meeting are
here,
here,
here.
Some group photos from the fall 2017 meeting are
here,
here,
here.
Some group photos from the spring 2017 meeting are
here,
here,
here,
here,
here,
here.
Some group photos from the spring 2016 meeting are
here,
here,
here.
A group photo from the fall 2015 meeting is
here.
For visitors to the area:
- For those flying in, the closest airports are
Shenandoah Valley Regional (SHD)
(twenty minutes away, but taxis not always available) and
Charlottesville Albemarle (CHO)
(an hour away; no shuttle, and an Uber will cost roughly $70).
- A map of JMU's campus can be found
here
(pdf).
- Information on visitor parking can be found
here.
Briefly, on Saturdays, no permit should be needed, but visitors can
only park in Commuter and Resident lots.
The C10 lot on Carrier Drive is the closest such lot to the Physics and
Chemistry building.
- Hotels: A few hotels that are within walking distance of the
Physics and Chemistry building are
Quality Inn (1881 Evelyn Byrd Avenue),
Sleep Inn (1891 Evelyn Byrd Avenue),
Hotel Madison (710 S. Main St).
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-1643420.
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:
For information on previous meetings, see here.
Other upcoming meetings of interest:
A list of upcoming events in VA can be found
here.
Harrisonburg area attractions:
For those not acquainted with the area, there are a number of things
to see. In no particular order, a few include:
