Events Archive

IAS HET Seminar | Nissan Itzhaki, Tel Aviv University & IAS| “When Light Strings Don't Look Like Particles” | Bloomberg Lecture Hall & Zoom
Fri, Mar 17, 2023, 1:45 pm1:45 pm

In certain time-dependent backgrounds there are nonstandard light strings that are created classically at an instant and cannot be approximated by particles. We discuss the implications of these strings to black holes and cosmology.

IAS HET Seminar | Manki Kim, Massachusetts Institute of Technology| “Exponentially Small Cosmological Constants in String Theory” | Bloomberg Lecture Hall & Zoom
Mon, Mar 13, 2023, 2:30 pm2:30 pm

In this talk, I will describe recent progress on moduli stabilization in string theory. In particular, I will describe recently found supersymmetric AdS_4 vacua, with exponential scale separation, of type IIB string compactifications on O3/O7 orientifolds of Calabi-Yau threefolds.
 

Mathematical Physics Seminar, Tues, Mar 7, 4:30pm, Jadwin A06, Xin Sun, University of Pennsylvania,"Random Surface, Planar Lattice Model and Conformal Field Theory"
Tue, Mar 7, 2023, 4:30 pm5:30 pm

Liouville quantum gravity (LQG) is a theory of random surfaces that originated from string theory. Schramm Loewner evolution (SLE) is a family of random planar curves describing scaling limits of many 2D lattice models at their criticality. Before the rigorous study via LQG and SLE in&nbsp…

Speaker
PGI Seminar Series Spring 2023|Jorge Noronha|UIUC|"Pushing the Boundaries of Relativistic Fluid Dynamics"
Mon, Mar 6, 2023, 12:30 pm1:30 pm

Heavy-ion collision experiments have provided overwhelming evidence that quarks and gluons can flow as a nearly frictionless, strongly interacting relativistic fluid over distance scales not much larger than the size of a proton. On the other hand, with the dawn of the multi-messenger astronomy era marked by the detection of a binary neutron…

Special Seminar - From Quantum Circuits to Gravity inside the Black Hole - Ying Zhao, UCSB
Thu, Mar 2, 2023, 4:00 pm5:00 pm

Abstract:  Black holes have not just become laboratories for astronomers, but also present some of the deepest unsolved problems in theoretical physics. During the past decade scientists learned that concepts from quantum information play a key role in understanding fundamental problems in gravity. In this talk I will explain some recent…

Faculty, Postdocs, graduate students
Hamilton Colloquium Series, Tadashi Takayanagi, Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics, "Holography with End-of-the-World Branes and Quantum Entanglement", Feb 28, Jadwin A10
Tue, Feb 28, 2023, 4:00 pm5:00 pm

Holography relates quantum many-body systems to gravitational theories. Quantum entanglement plays a key role to explain how the spacetime geometries in gravity emerge from quantum systems. A new class of holography can be found by introducing so called end-of-the-world branes and has been actively studied recently. Such holographic models…

Speaker
A free lecture open to the public.
Dark Cosmos | Directly Detecting Light Dark Matter| Robert McGehee (University of Michigan)
Tue, Feb 28, 2023, 4:00 pm5:00 pm

While the experimental program to detect ever lighter dark matter is proceeding full steam ahead, the theory of such light, detectable dark matter is at a crossroads. I will detail two examples of sub-GeV hadrophilic dark matter models which these future direct detection endeavors may discover while highlighting the serious challenges model…

Speaker
Faculty, Postdocs, graduate students
CPBF - Biophysics Seminar
Mon, Feb 27, 2023, 12:00 pm3:30 pm
HET Seminar |Simone Giombi, Princeton University| “ Holography on the AdS2 string and the Wilson line dCFT ” | PCTS & Zoom
Fri, Feb 24, 2023, 1:45 pm1:45 pm

In the gauge/string duality, Wilson loop operators are dual to
open string minimal surfaces anchored on the loop at the boundary of AdS.
In the simplest example, a circular Wilson loop corresponds
to an open string worldsheet with AdS2 geometry. The scattering amplitudes
of the worldsheet fluctuations are…

Speaker
Hamilton Colloquium Series, Nathaniel Craig, Univ of CA/Santa Barbara, "The “Who Ordered That” Collider", Feb 23, Jadwin A10
Thu, Feb 23, 2023, 4:00 pm5:00 pm

 

 In this talk, I’ll survey some of the major open questions in particle physics and make the case that they can best be addressed by a qualitatively new type of particle accelerator: a high-energy muon collider.  Recent progress on long-standing accelerator and detector challenges make such a collider a compelling…

A free lecture open to the public.
IAS HET Seminar | Jordan Cotler, Harvard University| “Isometric Evolution in de Sitter Quantum Gravity” | Bloomberg Lecture Hall (IAS) & Zoom
Thu, Feb 23, 2023, 1:45 pm1:45 pm

Do the postulates of quantum mechanics survive in quantum gravity?  The probabilistic interpretation of amplitudes, enforced by the unitarity of time evolution, is not guaranteed within the path integral formulation and has to be checked.  Leveraging the gravitational path integral, we find a non-perturbative mechanism whereby a sum…

Speaker
Virtually Inclusive: Embracing remote research and engagement
Thu, Feb 23, 2023, 1:30 pm2:30 pm

In response to the COVID-19 global pandemic, academic institutions, student programs and the entire world were forced into virtual only formats. Now that we are post-pandemic, there are lessons that can be permanently adopted from this experience that will lead to greater inclusion, accessibility, and connection amongst students. In this talk I…

Speaker
Special Seminar - Towards a physics of learning and decision-making - Gautam Reddy - Harvard University
Wed, Feb 22, 2023, 2:00 pm3:00 pm

Abstract: Living systems sense their physical environment and process this information to interact back with the environment. This continual loop that iterates between sensing, computation and action drives the emergence of complex behaviors. Physics plays a key role in this sensorimotor loop by imposing constraints on all of its basic elements…

Faculty, post docs, grads
Mathematical Physics Seminar, Tues, Feb 21, 4:30pm, Jadwin A06, Guillaume Remy, IAS,"A Probabilistic Approach to Liouville CFT"
Tue, Feb 21, 2023, 4:30 pm5:30 pm

Liouville theory was introduced by A. Polyakov in 1981 as the theory governing the conformal factor in the summation over all 2d Riemannian metrics. In recent years it has undergone extensive study in the probability community, and numerous conformal field theory (CFT) predictions have been established at a mathematical level of rigor…

Speaker
HET Seminar |Giorgio Cipolloni , Princeton| “ How do the eigenvalues of a large non-Hermitian random matrix behave? ” | PCTS & Zoom
Mon, Feb 20, 2023, 2:30 pm2:30 pm

We prove that the fluctuations of the eigenvalues converge to the Gaussian Free Field (GFF) on the unit disk. These fluctuations appear on a non-natural scale, due to strong correlations between the eigenvalues.

Then, motivated by the long time behaviour of the ODE \dot{u}=Xu, we give a precise estimate on the eigenvalue with the…

Speaker
Biophysics Seminar: Heather Lynch, Stony Brook University| Emergent pattern formation in penguin colonies: Life at the crossroads of ecology, geology, computational geometry, and computer vision
Mon, Feb 20, 2023, 12:30 pm1:30 pm

Aggregations are common in biological systems at a range of scales and may be driven by exogenous constraints such as environmental heterogeneity and resource availability or by “self-organizing” interactions among individuals. One mechanism leading to self-organized animal aggregations is captured by Hamilton’s “selfish herd” hypothesis, which…

Speaker
A free lecture open to the public.
PGI Seminar Series Spring 2023|Arthur Touati|IHES|"Geometric Optics Approximation for the Einstein Vacuum Equations"
Mon, Feb 20, 2023, 12:30 pm1:30 pm

In this talk I will present recent work on the rigorous justification of the geometric optics approximation for the Einstein vacuum equations, and its link with the Burnett conjecture in general relativity. I will start by presenting the initial value problem for the Einstein vacuum equations formulated in wave coordinates. Then I will give the…

Biophysics Seminar Series
Mon, Feb 20, 2023, 12:30 pm1:30 pm

Aggregations are common in biological systems at a range of scales and may be driven by exogenous constraints such as environmental heterogeneity and resource availability or by “self-organizing” interactions among individuals. One mechanism leading to self-organized animal aggregations is captured by Hamilton’s “selfish herd” hypothesis, which…

Speaker
A free lecture open to the public.
IAS HET Seminar | Aaron Hillman, Princeton University| “Stringy Completions of the Standard Model from the Bottom Up” | Wolfensohn Hall & Zoom
Fri, Feb 17, 2023, 2:30 pm4:00 pm

We study a class of tree-level ansatzes for 2→2 scalar and gauge boson amplitudes inspired by stringy UV completions. These amplitudes manifest Regge boundedness and are exponentially soft for fixed-angle high energy scattering, but unitarity in the form of positive expandability of massive residues is a nontrivial consistency condition. …

Speakers
Hamilton Colloquium Series, Xavier Trepat, Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia, "Linking Force, Form and Function in Intestinal Organoids", Feb 16, Jadwin A10
Thu, Feb 16, 2023, 4:00 pm5:00 pm

Intestinal organoids capture essential features of the intestinal epithelium such as crypt folding, spatial compartmentalization of different cell types, and cellular movements from crypt to villus. Each of these processes and their coordination in time and space requires patterned physical forces. I will present maps of the three-dimensional…

Speaker
A free lecture open to the public.