Talks

Coffee will be served at 10:30

As originally argued by Coleman, any breakdown of factorization arising from Euclidean wormholes may be reinterpreted as the result of having averaged over a hidden ensemble of theories. By directly categorifying Coleman's argument, we show that any breakdown of Hilbert space factorization arising from spatial wormholes (Einstein-Rosen bridges) may be reinterpreted as having projected to a subspace of neutral states in an underlying holographic quantum field theory. This talk is based on 2607.01322 with Zhencheng Wang.

The population study of stellar-mass black hole (sBH) binaries with ground-based gravitational-wave detection has achieved tremendous success in recent years. Future observations of extreme mass-ratio inspirals will similarly require proper population analyses that identify the formation channels, measure the branching ratio(s), and characterize the major properties within each channel. In this work, we propose that measurements of eccentricity, inclination, and component mass provide critical information for distinguishing different formation channels and probing detailed formation mechanisms. Focusing on dry and wet extreme mass-ratio inspirals, we establish the theoretical expectations for these observables in each formation channel. We also discuss how their distributions can be used to probe the lifetime and turbulence level of active galactic nucleus disks, the accretion patterns of supermassive black holes, and the population properties of sBHs within nuclear star clusters.

Hidden sectors, and their connection to dark matter, are a central part of the experimental high energy physics program.  We review the theoretical framework and motivation for hidden sectors, and describe how the framework motivates a broad range of searches, including high energy colliders and low energy intensity experiments.  We anchor the search for dark sectors in observations of dark matter and connect to direct detection experiments.  Lastly we consider the search for hidden sectors through gravity.

Please note, this colloquium is part of the Dark Interactions Workshop (DI2026)

Coffee and tea will be served at 16h

Organised by : Alexander Zhiboedov

Conventional entanglement witnesses and quantum state tomography can, in principle, certify any entangled state but require prior characterization of the measurement devices. Bell tests remove this requirement but certify only those entangled states that are Bell nonlocal. In this talk, I will present a self-consistent alternative to entanglement certification. This approach uses experimentally inferred operational identities to certify entanglement through of the violation of noncontextuality inequalities, it requires no prior characterization of measurement devices and can, in principle, certify any entangled state. Finally, I will briefly discuss the complexity of self-consistent entanglement certification and its implications for developing practical self-consistent certification methods beyond entanglement.