*Scroll down to Registration and Enrollment to participate.*
**Structure:**
We will discuss 8 papers which had huge impact in physics. One week Instructor Pedro Vieira will discuss a paper; students should read it beforehand. One week later students discuss recent papers referring to that paper (20 min each student, ~ 3 presentations; at the end of the class Pedro will grade the presentations based on “Physics”, “Presentation”, “Question handling”; and give comments).
By the end of the course, students will have explored a vast set of topics in theoretical physics — spotting potential gaps to be fixed — sharpened their presentation skills through steady practice, and sparked cross-disciplinary conversations through our shared physics language.
*Familiarity with Quantum Field Theory and General Relativity is assumed.*
**The papers:**
Sept 12 & 19: On the Quantum Correction for Thermodynamic Equilibrium, Wigner, 1932
Topic: Quantum Mechanics
Sept 22 & 29: Existence theorem for certain systems of nonlinear PDEs, Foures-Bruhat, 1952
Topic: General relativity
Oct 3 & 10: The Renormalization Group and the Epsilon Expansion, Wilson and Kogut, 1973
Topic: Quantum Field Theory
**Oct 10 (EXTRA)** & 17: More about the Massive Schwinger Model, Coleman, 1976
Topic: 2D Quantum Field Theory
Oct 20 & 27: A sequence of approximated solutions to the S-K model for spin glasses, Parisi, 1980
Topic: Statistical Mechanics
Oct 31 & Nov 7: Quantum Field Theory and the Jones Polynomial, Witten, 1988
Topic: Topological Quantum Field Theory
Nov 10 & 17: Exactly Solvable Field Theories of Closed Strings, Brezin, Kazakov, 1989
Topic: 2D Quantum Gravity
Nov 21 & Nov 28: Unpaired Majorana fermions in quantum wires, Kitaev, 2000
Topic: Quantum Matter/Quantum Information
**Schedule:**
This is a Friday / Monday alternating week schedule from 915am-1045am.
**Exceptions:**
There will be an afternoon session at 130pm on Friday October 10 to avoid the Thanksgiving holiday.
**Location & Building Access:**
Alice Room, 3rd Floor, Perimeter Institute, 31 Caroline St N, Waterloo
Participants who do not have an access card for Perimeter Institute must sign in at the security desk before each session. For information on parking or accessibility please contact academic@perimeterinstitute.ca.
**Registration and Enrollment:**
Please sign-up here: https://forms.office.com/r/nDQ6SDxSR4
