| Date | Speaker | Title | Abstract |
| Jan 6 | Tom Schwarz
(Fermilab) | Searching for Low Mass Dark Matter | |
| Jan 13 | Ben Grinstein
(UCSD) | Scale without Conformal Invariance in relativistic Quantum Field Theory | In 2-dim it is known that a unitary, well defined quantum field theory, if scale invariant must also be invariant under conformal transformations. Whether this is also true in dimensions higher than two has been an open question for decades. We have discovered renomalization group flows in 4-epsilon dimensions corresponding to scale but not conformal invariant theories. The flows correspond to limit cycles or ergodic behavior, neither of which had been reported in relativistic quantum field theories either. There seems to be a deep connection between scale but not conformal invariance and this type of renormalization group behavior. We will present these results and list some of open questions, including the possibility of such behavior in integral dimensions. |
| Jan 20 | Sumit Das
(Kentucky) | Holographic Quantum Quench | The holographic correspondence between non-gravitational field theories and gravitational theories in one higher dimension can be used to study non-equilibrium behavior of strongly coupled quantum field theories. One such phenomenon is that of quantum quench, where a coupling of the field theory is time dependent and typically asymptotes to constants at early and late times. In the gravity dual this can describe, under suitable circumstances, either black hole formation, or passage through a spacelike region of high curvature similar to a cosmological singularity. In particular in recent work holography has been used to study situations where quantum quench happens across a critical point, and has revealed interesting scaling properties. |
| Jan 27 | Brian Wecht
(Harvard) | New SCFTs from F-Theory | |
| Feb 3 | Can Kilic | | |
| Feb 10 | Natalia Toro | | |
| Feb 17 | Rob Myers | | |
| Feb 24 | Derek Teany | | |
| March 2 | No Seminar- Winter Recess | | |
| March 9 | Diana Vaman | | |
| March 16 | Mark Van Raamsdonk
(UBC) | | |
| March 23 | Liantao Wang
(Chicago) | | |
| March 30 | Michele Papucci
(Berkeley) | | |
| April 6 | | | |
| April 16 | Claudia de Rham | | |
| April 20 | Jorge Russo
(Barcelona and Perimeter) | | |
