High Energy Physics

This course provides a thorough introduction to the bosonic string based on the Polyakov path integral and conformal field theory. We introduce central ideas of string theory, the tools of conformal field theory, the Polyakov path integral, and the covariant quantization of the string. We discuss string interactions and cover the tree-level and one loop amplitudes. More advanced topics such as T-duality and D-branes will be taught as part of the course. The course is geared for M.Sc. and Ph.D. students enrolled in Collaborative Ph.D. Program in Theoretical Physics. Required previous course work: Quantum Field Theory (AM516 or equivalent). The course evaluation will be based on regular problem sets that will be handed in during the term. The primary text is the book: 'String theory. Vol. 1: An introduction to the bosonic string. J. Polchinski (Santa Barbara, KITP) . 1998. 402pp. Cambridge, UK: Univ. Pr. (1998) 402 p.' All interested students should contact Alex Buchel at abuchel@uwo.ca as soon as possible.

This course provides a thorough introduction to the bosonic string based on the Polyakov path integral and conformal field theory. We introduce central ideas of string theory, the tools of conformal field theory, the Polyakov path integral, and the covariant quantization of the string. We discuss string interactions and cover the tree-level and one loop amplitudes. More advanced topics such as T-duality and D-branes will be taught as part of the course. The course is geared for M.Sc. and Ph.D. students enrolled in Collaborative Ph.D. Program in Theoretical Physics. Required previous course work: Quantum Field Theory (AM516 or equivalent). The course evaluation will be based on regular problem sets that will be handed in during the term. The primary text is the book: 'String theory. Vol. 1: An introduction to the bosonic string. J. Polchinski (Santa Barbara, KITP) . 1998. 402pp. Cambridge, UK: Univ. Pr. (1998) 402 p.' All interested students should contact Alex Buchel at abuchel@uwo.ca as soon as possible.

The PAMELA satellite-borne experiment was launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome on the 15th of June 2006. It has been collecting data since July 2006. The instrument is composed of a silicon-microstrip magnetic spectrometer, a time-of-flight system, a silicon-tungsten electromagnetic calorimeter, an anticoincidence system, a shower tail counter scintillator and a neutron detector. The primary scientific goal is the measurement of the antiproton and positron energy spectrum in order to search for exotic sources, such as dark matter particle annihilations. PAMELA is also searching for primordial antinuclei (anti-helium), and testing cosmic-ray propagation models through precise measurements of the energy spectra of light nuclei and their isotopes. Moreover, PAMELA is investigating phenomena connected with solar and earth physics. The first results obtained in the explored research fields and in particular for antiproton-proton and positron-electron ratios will be presented.

The warped geometry present in Randall-Sundrum (RS) models provides an elegant means by which to generate stable scale hierarchies. Given the famous hierarchy problem of the Standard Model, and the relatively small number of known mechanisms which may solve it, the RS model has deservedly received a lot of attention. However the construction of a completely realistic RS model remains difficult and requires a number of modifications beyond the minimal framework. In this talk I will give an overview of the RS model, the difficulties encountered in realistic implementations and the types of modifications necessary to address them.

As LHC era is coming close, all sorts of ideas about physics beyond the standard model are being explored. It remains possible that a strong-coupling chiral theory could appear at TeV scale. When it comes to strongly coupled theories, lattice is still the most reliable and straightforward regularization method. But defining a chiral gauge theory on the lattice is formidable on its own. In this talk, I will present some most recent theoretical developments in attempt to tackle this problem, and explain some general theorems we proved for generic chiral gauge theories on lattice. These results should be useful in future studies in the field. I will also present some numerical results suggesting that the idea of constructing a chiral gauge theory by decoupling the mirror fermions using a high scale strong- coupling gauge symmetric phase suffers from severe constraints. I will end my talk by a brief outlook on how one may hope to reach a conclusive prove on the feasibility of this idea in general.

We study various aspects of power suppressed as well as exponentially suppressed corrections in the asymptotic expansion of the degeneracy of quarter BPS dyons in N=4 supersymmetric string theories. In particular we explicitly calculate the power suppressed corrections up to second order and the first exponentially suppressed corrections. We also propose a macroscopic origin of the exponentially suppressed corrections using the quantum entropy function formalism. This suggests a universal pattern of exponentially suppressed corrections to all four dimensional extremal black hole entropies in string theory.

I will discuss the various sources of non-Gaussianity (NG) in a class of multi-field models of inflation. I will show that there is both an intrinsic and a local contribution to the NG although they both have the same shape. It is also possible in this class of models that the dominant part to the 3-pt function comes from loop diagrams. These models are of the hybrid type and while they occur naturally in string theory, the conditions for the NG to be important are not generic.

We report on recent progress in understanding string compactifications to four dimensions, preserving minimal supersymmetry. We develop a general formalism to construct the kinetic terms of the low energy degrees of freedom. At strong warping, new light Kaluza-Klein modes appear, which change the effective action for the complex and Kahler moduli. We explain how to determine these new fields starting from 10d, and find their couplings to the zero mode sector.

In two dimensional CFTs the Zamolodchikov\'s c-theorem is fundamental in that it shows that the number of degrees of freedom decreases along the renormalization group flow. I will give a short history of and discuss recent developments in the quest to find its four-dimensional analogue using the central charges a & c.

We are currently in the throes of a potentially huge paradigm shift in physics. Motivated by recent developments in string theory and the discovery of the so-called \'string landscape\', physicists are beginning to question the uniqueness of fundamental theories of physics and the methods by which such theories might be understsood and investigated. In this colloquium, I will give a non-technical introduction to the nature of this paradigm shift and how it developed. I will also discuss some of the questions to which it has led, and the nature of the controversies it has spawned.

The efficient computation of scattering amplitudes in quantum field theory has many important applications, ranging from the computation of QCD backgrounds at the LHC to the study of the perturbative finiteness of N=8 supergravity. \'On-shell methods\' are a crucial ingredient in the computation of gauge theory and gravity amplitudes because they are far more efficient than traditional Feynman diagram techniques. I give an introduction to the basic concepts used in this field. I explain one particularly elegant method, the MHV vertex expansion, and outline how we recently proved the validity of this expansion in N=4 Super Yang-Mills Theory.