Quantum Fields and Strings

Two of the most exciting observables in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation, which could deeply impact our picture of the early universe, are non-Gaussianity and tensor modes. A potential detection of tensor modes can be explained in terms of a model of large field inflation. Theoretical considerations suggest that a symmetry should be invoked in order to protect the flatness of the inflaton potential and hence an axion enjoying a shift symmetry is a natural candidate. As main example, I will present a model of inflation in string theory based on axion monodromy. Non-perturbative effects typically correct the axion potential leading to small sinusoidal modulations on top of an otherwise flat slow roll potential. It can be shown analytically that a resonance between the oscillations of the background and the oscillations of the curvature fluctuations is responsible for the production of an observably large non-Gaussian signal. An explicit expression for the shape of this resonant non-Gaussianity will be presented. There is essentially no overlap between this shape and the local, equilateral, and orthogonal shapes, and in fact resonant non-Gaussianity is not captured by the simplest version of the effective field theory of inflation. Hopefully the analytic expression for resonant non-Gaussianity will be useful to further observationally constrain this class of models.

F-theory based vacua provide a potentially promising starting point for realizing Grand Unified Theories (GUTs) in string theory. In minimal realizations of this framework based on a point of E8 unification, this turns out to be quite constraining, and leads to specific expectations for the form of supersymmetry breaking. We discuss how the parameters of the F-theory GUT determine the sparticle spectrum, and possible signatures at the LHC.

We show that when a volume of quark matter rotates, there is an axial current flowing along the rotation axis. This effect has been overlooked in all previous treatments of relativistic fluids until calculations using gauge/gravity duality indicate it existence. The effect is a manifestation of triangle anomalies, and may exhibit itself in heavy ion collisions with nonzero impact parameter.

We describe a class of non-Fermi liquid systems, using the AdS/CFT correspondence. The Fermi surfaces are studied by computing the response functions of fermionic operators. The scaling behavior near the Fermi surfaces is determined by conformal dimensions in an emergent IR CFT. The low-energy excitations near the Fermi momenta are not Landau quasiparticles. When the operator is marginal in the IR CFT, the full spectral function is precisely of the `marginal Fermi liquid' form, introduced as a phenomenological model of the `strange metal' phase of high temperature superconductors.

In the context of AdS/CFT correspondence the AdS_3/CFT_2 instance of the duality stands apart from other well studied cases, like AdS_5/CFT_4 or AdS_4/CFT_3. One of the reasons is that the CFT side of this duality is not a theory of matrices but rather a two dimensional orbifold based on the group of permutations. In this talk we will discuss some aspects of this theory. In particular a diagrammatic language, akin to Feynman diagrams used for gauge theories, will be developed. Moreover, we will compute a large set of protected quantities in a certain symmetric product orbifold CFT, and show that these are elegantly given in terms of Hurwitz numbers.

For generic field theories at finite temperature, a power-law falloff of correlation functions of conserved currents at long times is a prediction of non-linear hydrodynamics. We demonstrate, through a one-loop computation in Einstein gravity in Anti de Sitter space, that this effect is reproduced by the dynamics of black hole horizons. The result is in agreement with the gauge-gravity correspondence.

Non-relativistic versions of the AdS/CFT conjecture have recently been investigated in some detail. These have primarily been in the context of the Schrodinger symmetry group. Here we talk of a study based on a different non-relativistic conformal symmetry: one obtained by a parametric contraction of the relativistic conformal group. The resulting Galilean conformal symmetry has the same number of generators as the relativistic symmetry group and thus is different from the Schrodinger group (which has fewer). One of the interesting features of the Galilean Conformal Algebra is that it admits an extension to an infinite dimensional symmetry algebra (which can potentially be dynamically realised). The latter contains a Virasoro-Kac-Moody subalgebra. We comment on realisations of this extended symmetry in a boundary field theory. We also propose a somewhat unusual geometric structure for the bulk gravity dual to any realisation of this symmetry. This involves taking a Newton-Cartan like limit of Einstein's equations in anti de Sitter space which singles out an $AdS_2$ comprising of the time and radial direction. The infinite dimensional Virasoro extension is identified with the asymptotic isometries of this $AdS_2$.

It has been conjectured that higher-dimensional rotating black holes become unstable at a sufficiently large value of the rotation, and that new black holes with pinched horizons appear at the threshold of the instability. We search numerically, and find, the stationary axisymmetric perturbations of Myers-Perry black holes with a single spin that mark the onset of the instability and the appearance of the new black hole phases. We also find new ultraspinning Gregory-Laflamme instabilities of rotating black strings and branes.

I will survey some open problems posed by experiments on condensed matter systems, such as the high temperature superconductors. I will argue that their solutions require analyses of strong-coupling regimes which cannot be addressed by conventional field-theoretic means. I will describe insights drawn from the AdS/CFT correspondence, and discuss the connections to theories with simple gravity duals.

Ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions are one of the most difficult problems for theoretical physicists: they probe non-abelian dynamics deep in the non-perturbative (strong coupling) regime in a many-body system, are highly dynamical (strong gradients), exhibit collective behavior, and involve phase transitions. Fluid dynamics with input from holography is surprisingly good at describing some aspects of experimental data in heavy-ion collisions. I will review some of this successful description, its limitations, and point out open problems that one may be able to understand using gauge/gravity duality.