CNRS
FOM
Cargèse Summer Institute
June 2 to June 14, 2014
CERN
ESF
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Cargese2014

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique-Université de Corte-Université de Nice-Sophia-Antipolis

INSTITUT D'ÉTUDES SCIENTIFIQUES DE CARGESE

ESF School in High Energy Physics and Astrophysics

June 2 - June 14, 2014

String Theory and Holography 


PROGRAM

LecturersTitleAbstract
I. AntoniadisAspects of String Phenomenology in the LHC era The present status of LHC physics is reviewed and future projects are presented. The main directions of physics Beyond the Standard Model are discussed in connection the the mass hierarchy problem. An overview of string phenomenology is presented and the main issues are described in the context of heterotic and type II strings.
N. Arkani-HamedTBA
C. BachasDefects in Conformal Field TheoryRapid review of defects in QFT and their uses. I will then focus on codimension-1 defects in the two maximal superconformal theories: N=4, d=4 SYM and N=6,8 d=3 ABJM theory, and describe some recent work on their supergravity duals.
T. BanksHolographic Space-TimeDescription of a general formalism for quantum gravity, which is supposed to include known string models as special cases. I will mostly concentrate on a model for 11D SUGRA compactified on a 7 torus of Planck size, where the variables satisfy simple anti-commutation relations. I'll present a collection of models describing scattering in such a space-time, all of which have many properties one would want for a theory of QG: particle like states, as well as black hole like states, with the qualitative properties of real black holes and particles. The scattering amplitudes will be Lorentz invariant for at most one choice of the many parameters in the models, which has not yet been found. I'll also briefly describe cosmological models based on this formalism, which describe a non-singular Big Bang universe, which evolves to deSitter space after a period of inflation. Inflation serves to generate localized fluctuations. The model gives predictions for the CMB which can coincide with those of slow roll inflation for the scalar fluctuations, but give predictions for tensor fluctuations, which might be measurable, and can distinguish the two frameworks.
A. CastroTBA
S. GukovExactly Solvable SQCDWe explore dynamics of two-dimensional non-abelian gauge theories with N=(0,2) supersymmetry that include N=(0,2) supersymmetric QCD and its generalizations. In particular, we present the phase diagram of N=(0,2) SQCD and determine its massive and low-energy spectrum. We find that the theory has no mass gap, a nearly constant distribution of massive states, and lots of massless states that in general flow to an interacting CFT. For a range of parameters where supersymmetry is not dynamically broken at low energies, we give a complete description of the low-energy physics in terms of 2d N=(0,2) SCFTs using anomaly matching and modular invariance. Our construction provides a vast landscape of new N=(0,2) SCFTs which, for small values of the central charge, could be used for building novel heterotic models with no moduli and, for large values of the central charge, could be dual to AdS_3 string vacua.
S. HarnollDisorder in QFT and holographyIn QFT the relevance of disorder is described by the Harris criterion, which I will derive. I will also discuss the phenomenon of Griffiths singularities, which arise when the partition function is dominated by rare disordered events. I will explain the difficulty of finding a disordered fixed point in QFT. I will show that using holographic methods one can find a disordered fixed point. The fixed point is described by a disordered spacetime whose averaged metric takes the Lifshitz form.
J. HarveyMoonshine and (Mock) Modular formsI give a brief overview of modular forms and the connection between the modular j function and the Monster group known as Monstrous Moonshine. I then go on to discuss Mathieu moonshine, involving a connection between the elliptic genus of K3 surfaces and the Mathieu group M24 and Umbral Moonshine which a mathematical extension of this involving 23 pairs of finite groups and vector-valued mock modular forms. Some mathematical properties of mock modular forms are discussed and they way they arise in the computation of elliptic genera of noncompact spaces is outlined. Finally, some aspects of the discriminant property of Umbral moonshine are covered along with some possible extensions to Monstrous Moonshine.
J. MaldacenaEntanglement and geometryWe discuss connections between entanglement and geometry. We discuss the interpretation of the eternal black hole as an entangled system and some of its implications for the black hole information paradox.
K. KomargodskiThe Geometry of the Space of Theories I review the Riemannian geometry that is present on the space of d-dimensional conformal field theories, and specialize to supersymmetric examples. For theories with four supercharges in d>2, I explain the structure of the space of theories as an algebraic variety and count the dimension of the space. In two dimensions, I explain how to the geometry can be extracted using recent progress on supersymmetric localization.
Y. OzLifshitz Field Theories and Turbulence First Lecture: We introduce Lifshitz scaling and its realization in quantum field theories and gravity. We construct the hydrodynamic limit and apply it to quantum critical points.
Second Lecture: We introduce turbulence, its universal structure in the initial range of scales and the singularity problem. We show how embedding in relativistic CFT hydrodynamics and the use of gravitational variables provide new insights towards the solution of these two fundamental problems.
E. RabinoviciGeometry and Noise (based on work with Jose F Barbon) We describe the fine structure of long-time quantum noise in correlation functions of AdS/CFT systems. Under standard assumptions of quantum chaos for the dynamics and the observables, we estimate the size of exponentially small oscillations and trace them back to geometrical features of the bulk system. The noise level is highly suppressed by the amount of dynamical chaos and the amount of quantum impurity in the states. This implies that, despite their missing on the details of Poincar #e recurrences, `virtual' thermal AdS phases do control the overall noise amplitude even at high temperatures where the thermal ensemble is dominated by large AdS black holes. We also discuss EPR correlations and find that, in contrast to the behavior of large correlation peaks, their noise level is the same in TFD states and in more general highly entangled states.
S-J. ReyExtracting Physics out of SUSY Localization (1) -- Large-Order Behavior of Perturbation TheorySUSY localization technique enables to compute partition function (as well as a limited set of local observables) in supersymmetric field theories. I present physical interpretation of the result from the viewpoint of large-order behavior in perturbation theory in d=2,3,4,5,6 superconformal field theories. I draw intuition from Schwinger pair production in constant electric background in 1+1 dimensional QED, and apply it to the Coulomb branch matrix integral representation of the partition function. I demonstrate that Borel resummability structure combines perturbative and nonperturbative parts of the integrand such that the resurgence property is manifest. Results for large N limit are also elaborated.
S. Rychkov3d Ising model and how to solve itBasics of 3d Ising model. Z2 broken, Z2 unbroken, and critical theory. RG interpretation. Focus on T=Tc. Scale invariance and consequences. Conformal invariance and consequences. "Scale implies conformal generically" and why. OPE and its convergence; associativity of OPE. Conformal bootstrap analysis for < ssss > in the 3d Ising CFT. The story of exactly two relevant scalars. C minimization conjecture for the 3d Ising CFT and numerical evidence for its validity.
A. SeverTBA
D. SonTBA
A. StromingerSoft Theorems and Asymptotic SymmetriesA pedagogical introduction was given to the relation between soft theorems and asymptotic symmetries. As an example it was demonstrated that Weinberg's soft graviton theorem is equivalent to the asymptotic BMS symmetry.
E. VerlindeTBA

 
 
 

SCHEDULE

Mon 2 June Arrival
9h00 - 10h30 11h00 - 12h30 17h00 - 18h00 18h00 - 19h00
Tue 3 June Rychov Sever Antoniadis Strominger
Wed 4 June Sever Rychkov Strominger Harvey
Thu 5 June Antoniadis Harvey Gong Show
Fri 6 June Rey Oz Harnoll Rabinovici
9h00 - 10h30 11h00 - 12h30 17h00 - 18h00 18h00 - 19h00
Mon 9 June Gukov Son Komargodski Oz
Tue 10 June Castro Komargodski Verlinde Wisdom Tree (Harvey, Komargodski, Rychkov, Verlinde)
Wed 11 June Banks Bachas Son Arkani-Hamed
Thu 12 June Arkani-Hamed Maldacena Gukov Bachas
Fri 13 June Castro Maldacena Banks
Sat 14 June Departure