A New Class of QFTs: from D-branes to the Geometry of Scattering Amplitudes
A New Class of QFTs: from D-branes to the Geometry of Scattering Amplitudes
- Event time: 2:00pm
- Event date: 19th March 2014
- Speaker: Sebastian Franco (Durham)
- Location: Higgs Centre Seminar Room, Room 4305, James Clerk Maxwell Building (JCMB) James Clerk Maxwell Building Peter Guthrie Tait Road Edinburgh EH9 3FD GB
Event details
Over the last decade, we have witnessed remarkable progress in our understanding of Quantum Field Theories. New insights have emerged from a multitude of fronts, ranging from the Gauge/Gravity Correspondence to Integrability. In this seminar I will discuss Bipartite Field Theories (BFTs), a new class of QFTs embodying many of these new approaches. BFTs are 4d, N=1 quiver gauge theories with Lagrangians defined by bipartite graphs on Riemann surfaces. Remarkably, they underlie a wide spectrum of interesting physical systems, including: D-branes probing Calabi-Yau manifolds, their mirror configurations, integrable systems in (0+1) dimensions and on-shell diagrams in N=4 SYM. I will introduce new techniques for studying these gauge theories. I will explain how their dynamics is captured graphically and the interesting emergence of concepts such as Calabi-Yau manifolds, the Grassmannian and cluster algebras in the classification of IR fixed points. Finally, I will introduce a new framework for analyzing general systems of D3 and D7-branes over toric Calabi-Yau 3-folds. These ideas can be exploited for embedding BFTs in String Theory but have a much wider range of applicability.
About Particle Physics Theory seminars
The Particle Physics Theory seminar is a weekly series of talks reflecting the diverse interests of the group. Topics include analytic and numerical calculations based on the Standard Model of elementary particle physics, theories exploring new physics, as well as more formal developments in gauge theories and gravity..