Talks

In my talk I will consider resurgence properties of Chern-Simons
theory on compact 3-manifolds. I will also describe what role
resurgence plays in the problem of categorification of Chern-Simons
theory, that is the problem of generalizing Khovanov homology of knots
to compact 3-manifolds.

Supposing there exists no new physics stabilizing the weak scale, the Standard Model Higgs potential exhibits a true vacuum at large field values, rendering the electroweak vacuum metastable (i.e., long lived relative to the age of the Universe). While this scenario need not preclude our current existence, it may not reconcile with a period of large(ish)-field inflation---large fluctuations in the Higgs field, induced by the inflationary energy density, can lead to the field locally sampling the unstable/true vacuum part of the potential, with potentially disastrous consequences. Evaluating the extent to which large-field inflation and the Higgs vacuum instability are incompatible requires understanding (i) how Higgs fluctuations evolve during inflation and (ii) the fate of large local fluctuations that sample the part of the potential beyond the barrier that separates the electroweak and true vacua. In this talk, I will discuss both of these aspects, and explain the implications for large-field inflation.

In this seminar, I will present two promising ways in which the cosmic microwave background (CMB) sheds light on critical uncertain physics and systematics of the large-scale structure.
       Shear calibration with CMB lensing (arXiv:1607.01761):
Realizing the full potential of upcoming weak lensing surveys requires an exquisite understanding of the errors in galaxy shape estimation. In particular, such errors lead to a multiplicative bias in the shear, degenerate with the matter density parameter and the amplitude of fluctuations. Its redshift-evolution can hide the true evolution of the growth of structure, which probes dark energy and possible modifications to general relativity. I will show that CMB lensing from a stage 4 experiment (CMB S4) can self-calibrate the shear for an LSST-like optical lensing experiment. This holds in the presence of photo-z errors and intrinsic alignment.
       Evidence for the kinematic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (kSZ) effect (arXiv:1510.06442); cluster energetics:

Through the kSZ effect, the baryon momentum field is imprinted on the CMB. I will report significant evidence for the kSZ effect from ACTPol and peculiar velocities reconstructed from BOSS. I will present the prospects for constraining cluster gas profiles and energetics from the kSZ effect with SPT-3G, AdvACT and CMB S4. This will provide constraints for galaxy formation and feedback models.

I'll describe a family of algebras called shifted Yangians, which arise as deformation quantizations of certain spaces related to loop groups.  I'll also describe coproducts for these algebras, which are related to multiplication in the loop group.  Physically, this fits into the story of Coulomb branches associated to 3d N=4 quiver gauge theories, where the above multiplication maps arises by taking products of scattering matrices.

Should we revisit the concept of space solely based on quantum mechanics?

Do we need a radically new physical principle to address the problem of quantum gravity?

In this talk I will adress these questions. I will review what are the central challenges one faces when trying to understand the theory of quantum gravity from first principles and focus on the main one which is non-locality.

I will present a collection of results and ideas that have been developed in the recent years that provides a radical new perspective on these issues.

One of the central concept I'll present is the idea that locality has to be made relative, and how this idea goes back to one of the founder of quantum mechanics: Max Born. I'll also explain how these new ideas remarkably force us to revisit the concept of space itself and propose a natural generalization that incorporate quantum mechanics in its fabric called modular space. I'll also sketch how these foundational ideas quite unexpectedly links with the most recent developments on the geometry of string theory, and generalized geometry.

We discuss information loss from black hole physics in AdS3, focusing on two sharp signatures infecting CFT2 correlators at large central charge c: `forbidden singularities' arising from Euclidean-time periodicity due to the effective Hawking temperature, and late-time exponential decay in the Lorentzian region. We show that these signatures can be derived from the behavior of the Virasoro conformal blocks at large central charge.  At finite c, we compute non-perturbative effects that resolve the unitarity-violation from forbidden singularities.  Finally, we elaborate on the non-perturbative behavior of Virasoro blocks by classifying all `saddles’ that can contribute for arbitrary values of external and internal operator dimensions in the semiclassical large central charge limit, and discuss their potential to resolve the problem of late-time decay in the Lorentzian regime.  

In this talk, I will present a framework in which Weinberg's anthropic explanation of the cosmological constant problem also solves the hierarchy problem. The weak scale is selected by chiral dynamics that controls the stabilization of an extra dimension. When the Higgs vacuum expectation value is close to a fermion mass scale, the radius of an extra dimension becomes large, and develops an enhanced number of vacua available to scan the cosmological constant down to its observed value. The fermion sector that controls the size of the extra dimension consists of a pair of electroweak doublets and several singlets. These leptons satisfy approximate mass relations related to the weak scale and are accessible to the LHC and future colliders. At low energies, the radion necessarily appears as an unnaturally light scalar, in a range of masses and couplings accessible to fifth-force searches as well as scalar dark matter searches with atomic clocks and gravitational-wave detectors.

Despite tremendous recent progress, gaps remain in our knowledge of our cosmic history. For example, we have yet to make observations of Cosmic Dawn or the subsequent Epoch of Reionization. Together, these represent the important period when the first stars and galaxies were formed, dramatically altering their surroundings in the process. Radio telescopes targeting the 21cm line will open up these crucial epochs to direct observations in the next few years, filling in a missing chapter in our cosmic story. I will review our recent results from the Precision Array to Probe the Epoch of Reionization (PAPER) experiment. These results have begun to shed light on heating processes during reionization. I will also motivate unconventional ideas in experiment design that have been proposed and implemented to deal with the unique technical challenges of 21cm cosmology. Cognizant of "lessons learned" from the current generation of instruments, I will describe our recently commenced Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA), including its forecasted promise to provide exquisite constraints on reionization astrophysics as well as on fundamental parameters such as the neutrino mass.