I make a surprising connection between two long-standing problems in higher-spin gravity: (1) locality concerns at the quartic order in perturbation theory, and (2) the physical meaning of the Didenko-Vasiliev "BPS black hole" solution.

I show that the Didenko-Vasiliev solution…

40 years ago, Richard Feynman outlined his vision of a quantum simulator for carrying out complex calculations of physical problems. Today, his dream has become a reality and a highly active field of resarch across different platforms ranging from ultracold atoms and ions, to superconducting qubits and photons. In my…

The resolvents of finite volume restricted Hamiltonians, GxxΛ(⍵), have long been used to describe the localization of quantum systems. More recently, projected Green's functions (pGfs) -- finite volume restrictions of the resolvent -- have been applied to translation invariant free fermion systems, and the pGf zero eigenvalues have been shown…

In this talk, I present a novel scenario in which the unexplored cosmological evolution of the axion field, specifically a rotation in field space, gives rise to the observed dark matter abundance, baryon asymmetry of the Universe, and gravitational waves signatures. This rotation of the axion field provides a natural origin for an era of…

Molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) is an epitaxial process by which we could grow single-crystal thin films, heterostructures, and superlattices with the highest achievable purity. Therefore, MBE is known as one of the most advanced and controllable material synthesis methods. In this talk, I will briefly introduce the MBE growth mechanism and then…

The Galactic Center of the Milky Way, thanks to its proximity, allows to perform astronomical observations that investigate physical phenomena at the edge of astrophysics and fundamental physics. As such, it offers a unique laboratory to probe gravity, where one can not only test the basic predictions of General Relativity but is also able…

For the last 10 years, we have seen a rapid adoption of deep learning techniques across many disciplines, ranging from self-driving vehicles, credit card rating to biomedicine. Along with this wave, we have seen rapid adoption and rejection in the nascent field of Machine Learning and…

We are in a new era of gravitational physics in which both gravitational-wave measurements and cosmological observations can be used to test fundamental physics. Moreover, recent computational developments allow us to investigate (at present largely unexplored) regimes where the gravitational force is strong – a very promising area to search…

I will describe a proposal that relates AdS_3 quantum gravity to a topological quantum field theory known as ``Teichmuller TQFT.’’ This proposal clarifies the relationship between pure AdS_3 quantum gravity and two copies of SL(2,R) Chern-Simons theory and resolves some well-known issues with this lore. I will argue…

This talk will concern the interaction problem in General Relativity in a specific setting. More precisely, we will describe a research program aimed at a rigorous understanding of the interaction of gravitational waves originating from several localized and distant sources.
First, we will restrict our attention to a model problem …

In this talk, I will describe an analytic procedure whereby scattering amplitudes are bootstrapped directly from an input mass spectrum and a handful of physical constraints: crossing symmetry, boundedness at high energies, and finiteness of exchanged spins. For an integer spectrum, this procedure gives a first…

The CUNY Masters in Astrophysics program is in its first year, with the first cohort of students. I will give an overview of the design of the program, including the partnership between CUNY and the Flatiron Institute, recruitment strategies, mentoring structures, and anti-oppression work. Our goal is to increase opportunities for marginalized…

There has been exciting recent progress in the study of the quantum nature of black holes through the use of certain exactly solvable models. This work shows how to realize, in concrete terms, various long-held expectations about quantum gravity, such as the transition from describing physics in terms of…

A minimal surface in a random environment (MSRE) is a surface which minimizes the sum of its elastic energy and its environment potential energy, subject to prescribed boundary values. Apart from their intrinsic interest, such surfaces are further motivated by connections with disordered spin systems and first-passage percolation models. We…