High Energy Physics

The Virasoro conformal blocks are very interesting since they have many connections to other areas of math and physics. For example, when $c=1$, they are related to tau functions of integrable systems of Painlev\'{e} equations. They are also closely related to non-perturbative completions in the topological string theories. I will first explain what Virasoro conformal blocks are. Then I will describe a new way to construct Virasoro blocks at $c=1$ on $C$ by using the "abelian" Heisenberg conformal blocks on a branched double cover of C. The main new idea in our work is to use a spectral network and I will show the advantages of this construction. This nonabelianization construction enables us to compute the harder-to-get Virasoro blocks using the simpler abelian objects. It is closely related to the idea of nonabelianization of the flat connections in the work of Gaiotto-Moore-Neitzke and Neitzke-Hollands. This is based on a joint work with Andrew Neitzke.

Many fundamental-physics experiments scatter high energy beams off of fixed targets composed of ordinary matter i.e., atoms. When considering the scattering off of atomic electrons we often make the approximation that the electron is free and at rest, however one can ask how good this approximation really is? This becomes especially important in the face of demanding precision goals of certain experiments. For example the planned MuonE experiment will attempt to measure the shape of  $\mu e \rightarrow \mu e$ scattering as a function of angle with a precision of 10 ppm. In this talk I will explain how to systematically include bound-state corrections arising from the difference between a free-and-at-rest electron and those bound in atomic orbitals. When the final state of the atom is not measured, a surprisingly simple and elegant formula can be obtained that reduces the leading order corrections to a single atomic matrix element. New developments related to Coulomb corrections for inelastic systems will also be discussed.  Based on (arXiv:2403.12184, 2407.21752). 

Directional dark matter detectors using diamond as a target material offer a novel solution to overcome solar neutrino backgrounds. Sub-micron damage tracks from nuclear recoils can be read out via advanced quantum sensing techniques with nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers. I will discuss recent advancements in strain-sensitive quantum interferometry that enable precise strain imaging, paving the way for directional particle detection. These developments highlight the potential of diamond-based detectors for advancing dark matter and neutrino physics, as well as material science applications.