Search Talks

In this talk, I examine the massless 't Hooft equation. This integral equation governs meson bound state wavefunctions in 2D SU(N) gauge theory in the large-N limit, and it can also be obtained by quantizing a folded string in flat space. The folded string is a limiting case of a more general setup: a four-segmented string moving in three-dimensional anti-de Sitter (AdS) space. I compute its classical spectral curve using celestial variables and planar bipartite graphs, also known as on-shell diagrams or brane tilings. In this more general setup, the 't Hooft equation acquires an extra term, which has previously been proposed as an effective confining potential in QCD. After an integral transform, the equation can be inverted in terms of a finite difference equation. I show that this difference equation has a natural interpretation as the quantized (non-analytic) spectral curve of the string. The spectrum interpolates between equally spaced energy levels in the tensionless limit and 't Hooft's nearly linear Regge trajectory at infinite AdS radius.

Zoom link:  https://pitp.zoom.us/j/97373882483?pwd=NmphN0N3ckdHbHdlcVpKcGkzMHY1Zz09

Chern-Simons theories can possess 't Hooft anomalies for time-reversal symmetry. In this talk, we will discuss abelian Chern-Simons theories with an interesting time-reversal symmetry algebra and compute the classification of the anomaly, which is captured by a bordism group. In order to get the classification correct I will explain the argument we used that utilized the Smith homomorphism for bordism groups. In order to compute the value of the anomaly we study the Atiyah-Hirzebruch spectral sequence and find a way to trivialize each layer of the anomaly. I will also discuss the generating manifold for the corresponding bordism group, and how it arises from the Smith homomorphism. The knowledge of this manifold allows one to compute the partition function by using the data that characterizes the Chern-Simons theory and the symmetry actions; this gives a robust check of our answer for the anomaly. This is based on work in progress with Arun Debray and Weicheng Ye. 

Zoom link:  TBA

Dynamical fixed points are late-time attractors of interactive QFTs that differ from thermal equilibria by a constant entropy production rate. We use holographic framework to analyze such fixed points of strongly coupled gauge theories, driven by homogeneous and isotropic expansion of the background metric - equivalently, a late-time dynamics of a corresponding QFT in Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker Universe. As an application, we discuss gravitational reheating of quark-gluon plasma in the exit from the early-cosmology inflation.

Zoom link:  https://pitp.zoom.us/j/96385064629?pwd=NTZrdUdtbW0rZkxPdFZ3ZnZRUzhjZz09

I will discuss a novel search for axions using spectropolarimetric observations of magnetic white dwarfs (MWDs). Photons produced as thermal radiation at the MWD surface may convert into an axion as they traverse the magnetosphere, but only the component polarized parallel to the MWD magnetic field. Therefore the MWD radiation at Earth is linearly polarized perpendicular to the magnetic field direction. I detail the analysis of archival linear polarization spectra of a few nearby MWDs that excludes the axion interpretation of the TeV gamma-ray transparency anomalies. I briefly discuss the sensitivity of ongoing and future searches using dedicated data at the Lick Observatory.

Zoom Link:  https://pitp.zoom.us/j/97657182582?pwd=ZlFYWWtoYXhQZUtnOUxsZFpqMUo1Zz09

Scattering amplitudes are where quantum field theory directly meets collider experiments.  An excellent model for scattering in QCD is provided by N=4 super-Yang-Mills theory, particularly in the planar limit of a large number of colors, where the theory becomes integrable.  The first nontrivial amplitude in this theory is for 6 gluons.  It can be computed to 7 loops using a bootstrap based on the rigidity of the function space of multiple polylogarithms, together with a few other conditions.  One can also bootstrap a particular form factor, for the chiral stress-tensor operator to produce 3 gluons, through 8 loops.  This form factor is the N=4 analog of the LHC process, gluon gluon --> Higgs + gluon. Remarkably, the two sets of results are related by a mysterious `antipodal' duality, which exchanges the role of branch cuts and derivatives.  Furthermore, this duality is `explained' by an antipodal self-duality of the 4 gluon form factor of the same operator; although it is still fair to say of the self-duality, `who ordered that?'

Zoom link:  https://pitp.zoom.us/j/96265005656?pwd=Qndza3pIKzdmZVJGL0s1ZUZkRmp4QT09

Precision measurements of primordial correlators in the CMB, Large Scale Structure, and 21-cm cosmology may contain “on-shell" imprints of extremely heavy particle physics, with masses comparable to the inflationary Hubble scale, via the remarkable inflationary mechanism known as “cosmological collider physics”. I will describe my research in (a) finding new robust mechanisms for extending the energy range and strength of such signals, (b) identifying motivated particle physics targets that may be discoverable, (c) showing how cosmological collider physics can probe the mechanism of inflation itself, and (d) demonstrating variants of the mechanism that may be observable in new cosmological “maps”, such as stochastic gravitational wave backgrounds with significant anisotropies. While this is an ambitious program of research, there are major challenges to bring it to fruition, on the experimental, phenomenological and theoretical fronts, which I will sketch. 

Zoom Link:  https://pitp.zoom.us/j/98923687484?pwd=cjgweEhoejVCeHAvc0RBSDEvVkZldz09