Conference

We consider dual pairs of four dimensional heterotic/type IIA CHL models with 16 space-time supersymmetries. We provide strong evidence for the existence of an S-duality acting on the heterotic axion-dilaton by a Fricke involution S --> -1/NS, where N is the order of the orbifold symmetry. While most models are self-dual, in some cases S-duality relates the CHL model to a compactification of type IIA on an orbifold of T^6. We provide a simple criterion to determine whether a model is self-dual or not. Finally, we argue that in self-dual CHL models the lattices of electric and magnetic charges must be N-modular and verify this prediction.

Umbral moonshine attaches mock modular forms and meromorphic Jacobi forms to automorphisms of the Niemeier lattices. It is now known that this association can be recovered from specific, graded modules for the Niemeier lattice automorphism groups. We will describe recent progress in a program to realize these modules explicitly.

We observe a relationship between the representation theory of the Thompson sporadic group and a weakly holomorphic modular form of weight one-half that appears in Zagier's work on traces of singular moduli and Borcherds products. We conjecture the existence of an infinite dimensional graded module for the Thompson group and use the observed relationship to propose a McKay-Thompson series for each conjugacy class of the Thompson group and then construct weakly holomorphic weight one-half forms at higher level that coincide with the proposed McKay-Thompson series. We also observe a discriminant property in this conjectured moonshine for the Thompson group that is closely related to the discriminant property conjectured to exist in Umbral Moonshine.

This talk will summarize some recent results in bimetric theory, including the existence of the square-root matrix, possible connection to partial masslessness and conformal gravity, the structure of constraints and finally, the cosmological implications of the theory.

Theories with large kinetic interactions have very relevant phenomenological applications in cosmology, in particular in the context of cosmic acceleration. Their Effective Field Theory (EFT) description relies on the so-called Vainshtein effect being operative. When incorporated at the quantum level, this mechanism ensures the validity of the theory in a non-trivial way. I will discuss how to estimate the regime of validity of such EFTs on the basis of computing the quantum corrections to the classical theory. I will point out how some lessons learned from the study of quantum effects in these theories might help us to tackle the significance of superluminalities and revisit what properties a healthy EFT should have.