Talks

It has been conjectured that maximally supersymmetric SU(N) Yang-Mills theory is dual to a String Theory on asymptotically AdS_5 times S^5 backgrounds. This is known as the AdS/CFT correspondence. In this talk I will show how using one-loop calculations in the gauge theory, one can study the emergence of the dual String Theory. We will see, quite explicitly, the emergence of closed strings, D-branes, open strings and space-time itself. This is done in a reduced sector (SU(2) sector), where the gauge theory can be written as Matrix Quantum Mechanics. This simple sector provides a toy model of a non-perturbative quantum theory of gravity.

In the context of AdS/CFT, it has been recently proposed that Wilson loops in higher representation of the gauge group have a dual description in terms of D-branes in AdS_5xS^5. After reviewing this new dictionary, I will present a computation of correlators between chiral primaries of N=4 SYM and Wilson loops in large symmetric and antisymmetric representations. These correlators can be computed both in supergravity using D-branes and in gauge theory from a matrix model, with precise agreement between the two sides

Due to recent, as well as less recent, work on perturbative N=8 supergravity and N=4 super Yang-Mills in 4d, the two theories are appearing more and more closely related. These relations include similar \"MHV-rule\" constructions, one-loop structure and, perhaps, the same UV behavior, namely UV finiteness. This talk introduces some of the methods to study the relations.

Quantum gravity in an AdS space-time is described by an SU(N) Yang-Mills theory on a sphere, a bounded many-body system. We argue that in the high temperature phase the theory is intrinsically non-perturbative in the large N limit. At any nonzero value of the \\\'t Hooft coupling $lambda$, an exponentially large (in N^2) number of free theory states of wide energy range (of order N) mix under the interaction. As a result the planar perturbation theory breaks down. We argue that an arrow of time emerges and the dual string configuration should be interpreted as a stringy black hole

We will discuss applications of the recently developed twistor-space methods in perturbative quantum field-theory. The two central topics will be 1) the unitarity bootstrap approach to hard scattering amplitudes in QCD and 2) the analysis of the UV structure of N=8 supergravity.

A number of mechanisms have been introduced in previous literature that might be responsible for transitions between metastable minima in a scalar field theory coupled to gravity. The connection between these transition mechanisms has remained unclear, and current formulations of eternal inflation only include a subset of the allowed processes. In the first part of this talk, I will discuss how a number of transition mechanisms can be unified in the thin-wall limit, with interesting consequences for quantum cosmology and eternal inflation. I will then discuss making predictions in an eternally inflating universe, and introduce a measure for eternal inflation that is based on transitions rather than vacua.

Non-Gaussianities are a generic prediction of multi-field inflationary models and within reach of upcoming experiments. After reviewing current observational limits and the physical origin of a non-zero three point correlation function, I will discuss the possibility of detectable non-Gaussian signatures in a certain class of multi-field inflationary models, upon which assisted inflation/N-flation lies. Using the delta-N formalism within the slow roll approximation and focusing on N-flation (quadratic potentials without cross-coupling), we will see that said signatures are suppressed as the number of e-foldings grows, and that this suppression is increased in models with a broad spectrum of masses. We thus conclude that the production of a large non-Gaussian signal in models of this type is very unlikely.