String Theory Seminar
Welcome! You have reached the webpage for the UNC / Duke joint String seminar. Talks alternate between UNC Chapel Hill and Duke.
When at UNC Chapel Hill: Phillips 277, Thursdays 4-5 PM
When at Duke: Physics 119, Thursdays 3-4 PM
The seminars can be viewed subsequently on our video archives available through the links below.
NOTE: You will need to have RealPlayer to watch the broadcast or the video archives. You can download RealPlayer from Real's website.
The preferred browser for Macs is Safari.
Seminars - Spring 2015
Thursday, January 29, 2015, 4:00 PM, 277 Phillips Hall,
String Theory Seminar at UNC-CH
Albion Lawrence (Brandeis University),
Coarse grained quantum dynamics
Thursday, February 5, 2015, 3:00 PM, Physics 119,
String Theory Seminar at Duke
Scott Watson (Syracuse University),
How well can we really know the scale of inflation?
A detection of primordial gravity waves has been heralded not only as a smoking gun for the existence of inflation, but also as a way to establish the
scale at which inflation took place. In this talk I will review the connection between a confirmed detection of primordial gravity waves and the scale
of inflation. In particular, I will discuss whether other primordial sources of gravity waves could lead to a misinterpretation of the data. I will
also discuss challenges for inflation model building and the implications for the post-inflationary, “Big Bang” universe.
Thursday, February 12, 2015, 4:00 PM, 277 Phillips Hall,
String Theory Seminar at UNC-CH
Daniel S. Park (Simons Center for Geometry and Physics),
Dualities of two-dimensional gauge theories
Recent localization techniques have proven to be a powerful tool for
studying two-dimensional gauge theories with (2,2) supersymmetry. In
particular, they have been used to propose/check gauge theory dualities in
two-dimensions. In this talk, I will focus on the dualities of
two-dimensional quiver gauge theories and illustrate some checks using
localization techniques. The dualities reproduce the mutation rules of
"cluster algebras" formulated by Fomin and Zelevinsky. Based on work with
Francesco Benini and Peng Zhao, and work in progress with Cyril Closset
and Stefano Cremonesi.
Thursday, February 19, 2015, 3:00 PM, Physics 119,
String Theory Seminar at Duke
Ilarion Melnikov (Harvard University),
A toric model of heterotic moduli space
Thursday, March 19, 2015, 4:00 PM, 277 Phillips Hall,
String Theory Seminar at UNC-CH
Justin Khoury (University of Pennsylvania),
New Framework for Dark Matter
Thursday, March 26, 2015, 4:00 PM, Physics 119,
String Theory Seminar at Duke
Masahito Yamazaki (IPMU),
Conformal Blocks: Representation Theory and Recursion Relation
We discuss conformal blocks in D>2 CFTs, which are one of the crucial inputs for the numerical bootstrap program. We analytically derive the recursion
relation for the conformal blocks for symmetric traceless tensors, applicable for example to the bootstrap of 4-point of current correlators in D=3,
and comment on the general representation-theoretic structures behind it.
Saturday, April 11, 2015 (all day), Physics 119,
Southeastern Strings Meeting at Duke
Philip Argyres (University of Cincinnati)
Sheldon Katz (University of Illinois)
Diana Vaman (University of Virginia)
Seung-Joo Lee (Virginia Tech)
Jirui Guo (Virginia Tech)
Thursday, April 16, 2015, 4:00 PM, Phillips 277,
String Theory Seminar at UNC-CH
Michele Del Zotto (Harvard University),
On the absence of exotic BPS particles
Seminars and Video Archives
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Fall 2014
Spring 2014
Fall 2013
Spring 2013
Fall 2012
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Fall 2011
Spring 2011
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Spring 2010
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Summer 2001
Spring 2001
This page is maintained by Louise Dolan.