High Energy Physics

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.

I discuss our recent investigations into 2+1 dim Chern-Simons theories with gravity duals that have reduced supersymmetry. Many new phenomena such as fractional statistics arise in 2+1 dim field theory that make this duality interesting and subtle. I focus on our work involving an example of such a duality with minimal supersymmetry and propose a field theoretic dual for a long known vacuum of gauged supergravity on AdS_4. I also argue that 2+1 dim duality might present a favorable landscape for constructing non-supersymmetric conformal fixed points at large but finite N.

One of the most challenging problems in theoretical physics today is the so called cosmological constant problem. While current observations are consistent with the prediction of GR with an unexplainable tiny cosmological constant, it remains possible that it\'s the deviation of the law of gravity at large distance from Einstein\'s theory that resolves the puzzle. In this talk, I will briefly review some of the theoretical attempts we made along this line, in particular, the so called \'classically constrained gravity\' and its implications in quantum cosmology. I will also present some most recent study on massive spin-2 particles in De Sitter space, and describe a model, initially motivated by DGP theory, which allows one to explore the Higuchi forbidden mass range of the graviton on the De Sitter background.

Extension of the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM) that include a U(1)\' gauge symmetry are motivated by top-down constructions and offer an elegant solution to the MSSM mu problem. In this talk I will describe some of the opportunities that such models offer, such as a new mechanism for mediation of supersymmetry breaking, as well as some of the challenges in constructing viable supersymmetric U(1)\' models.

I will discuss a simple two-dimensional theory, whose unparticle sector is a modification of the Schwinger model, that gives new insights into the qualitative features of unparticle physics. I will analyze the transition between the short-distance perturbative physics and large-distance unparticle behavior. Then I will show how to compute processes that involve unparticle self-interactions, for which nontrivial higher n-point functions of the conformal theory are essential.

The AdS/CFT correspondence has recently been extended to field theories satisfying the non-relativistic generalization of conformal symmetry, the Schroedinger symmetry. These holographic descriptions offer the potential to do calculations in the strong coupling regime of experimentally-realized condensed matter systems, such as fermions at unitarity. In this talk, we will outline the holographic formulation of such NRCFTs at zero temperature. We will then discuss the embedding of the appropriate geometry into IIB supergravity, and the finite temperature generalization that results. We will conclude with a brief discussion of the holographic description of non-relativistic conformal hydrodynamics and current research projects.