Speakers
Laura Donnay
Harvard University
Conformally Soft Photons and Gravitons
Jonathan Heckman
University of Pennsylvania
F-theory and Dark Energy
Alex Maloney
McGill University
Information Theory and the Conformal Bootstrap
Abstract:
Two dimensional conformal field theories are among the most important quantum field theories: they describe important statistical and condensed matter systems near criticality, and -- while not exactly solvable -- many exact techniques can be used which are not available in higher dimensions. I will consider these theories defined on surfaces of genus g>1, where the partition function of the theory can be interpreted as an entanglement Renyi entropy. This leads to a fascinating relationship between the geometry of conformal field theory and information theory. In particular, statements about information theory lead to novel constraints on the structure constants of the theory which are invisible in the usual conformal bootstrap approach to the classification of CFTs. I will also discuss the relationship with holography, where the phase structure of black holes teaches us about the entanglement structure of strongly coupled field theory.
Roberto Emparan
Universitat de Barcelona
Black Hole Collisions in Higher Dimensions
Clifford Johnson
University of Southern California
Further Connections Between Gravitational Thermodynamics and Quantum Information
Abstract:
We show how the extended thermodynamics of hyperbolic black holes in AdS describes features of quantum information measures in quantum field theory, and discuss prospects for making further connections. In particular, the second law of thermodynamics is seen in this context to map to the generalized Zamolodchikov c-theorem, connecting these two firmly for the first time. Some projects for getting further lessons and perhaps new tools from these connections (perhaps using holographic heat engines) are outlined.
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Postdocs:
TBA (TBA)
Graduate students:
TBA (TBA)