Talks

In quantum gravity, observables must be diffeomorphism-invariant. Such observables are nonlocal, in contrast with the standard assumption of locality in flat spacetime quantum field theory. I will show how to construct 'gravitationally dressed' observables in linearized gravity that become local in the weak gravity limit, and whose corrections to exact locality are characterized by the Newtonian potential. One can attempt to make these observables more local by concentrating gravitational field lines into a smaller solid angle. In AdS_3 gravity I will show that nonperturbatively there are sharp limits to how much the gravitational dressing can be concentrated.

Based on arXiv:1507.07921 with Steve Giddings, and arXiv:1510.00672 with Don Marolf and Eric Mintun.

Some 5d gauge theories have a 6d N=(1,0) SCFT as their UV completion. Given such 5d gauge theory we desire to determine its 6d UV completion. In this talk, I will present a method to do this for 5d gauge theories that can be engineered in string theory by brane webs. This can then be applied to study compactification of 6d N=(1,0) SCFT's on a torus.