Talks

The experimental violation of Bell inequalities using spacelike separated measurements precludes the explanation of quantum correlations through causal influences propagating at subluminal speed. Yet, it is always possible, in principle, to explain such experimental violations through models based on hidden influences propagating at a finite speed v>c, provided v is large enough. Here, we show that for any finite speed v>c, such models predict correlations that can be exploited for faster-than-light communication. This superluminal communication does not require access to any hidden physical quantities, but only the manipulation of measurement devices at the level of our present-day description of quantum experiments. Hence, assuming the impossibility of using quantum non-locality for superluminal communication, we exclude any possible explanation of quantum correlations in term of finite-speed influences.

The Effective Field Theory (EFT) approach can be employed to perform high PN order calculations of the Hamiltonian of a binary system. We show how we reproduced the 3PN dynamics by means of an algorithm implemented in Mathematica and our progress towards the computation of the 4PN Hamiltonian. We also show the EFT computation of the tail term affecting the conservative dynamics at 4PN order, first derived using traditional methods by Blanchet and Damour.

We consider the effect of an in-plane current on the magnetization dynamics of a quasi-two-dimensional spin-orbit coupled nanoscale itinerant ferromagnet. By solving the appropriate kinetic equation for an itinerant electron ferromagnet, we show that Rashba spin-orbit interaction provides transport currents with a switching action, as observed in a recent experiment (I. M. Miron et al., Nature 476, 189 (2011)). The dependence of the effective switching field on the magnitude and direction of an external magnetic field in our theory agrees well with experiment.

The partition function on the three-sphere of many supersymmetric Chern-Simons-matter theories reduces, by localization, to a matrix model. In this talk I will describe a new method to study these models in the M-theory limit, but at all orders in the 1/N expansion. The method is based on reformulating the matrix model as the partition function of a Fermi gas. This new approach leads to a completely elementary derivation of the N^{3/2} behavior for ABJM theory and other quiver Chern-Simons-matter theories. In addition, the full series of 1/N corrections to the original matrix integral can be simply determined by a next-to-leading calculation in the semiclassical expansion of the quantum gas.

We investigate the theoretical implications of scale without conformal invariance in quantum field theory. We argue that the RG flows of such theories correspond to recurrent behaviors, i.e. limit cycles or ergodicity. We discuss the implications for the a-theorem and show how dilatation generators do generate dilatations. Finally, we discuss possible well-behaved non-conformal scale-invariant examples.

Based on tetrad-generalized canonical formalism by Arnowitt, Deser, and Misner most recent achievements in analytic calculations of higher order post-Newtonian Hamiltonians for spinning binary black holes and neutron stars are presented. The results of the generalized ADM formalism are put into mathematical relationship with those obtained within the Effective Field Theory approach.

The advent of large spectroscopic surveys of galaxies in the early 1980s has shown us that galaxies assemble in large scale structures. Recently, cosmic voids have received more attention through the availability wide and deep galaxy surveys. Voids have a simple phase space structure and thus are easier to model than cluster of galaxies. I will present two important applications of the precise analysis of voids in the context of constraining the equation of state of dark energy. First I will discuss how they could be used to have a much better determination of the expansion factor than using traditional methods, like Baryonic Acoustic Oscillations. Second, I will show that voids is maybe the only large-scale structure for which the dynamics can be finely modelled, notably through the use of the Monge-Ampere-Kantorovitch orbit reconstruction method. For the two above cases, I will present how we can mathematically define cosmic voids, the methods that have been developed to find them and some results based on N-body simulations for constraining the Dark Energy equation of state.