Forthcoming Seminars › Seminar Series

String Theory Seminar

Mon, 14/01/2008
11:00 		Philip Candelas (Oxford) String Theory Seminar Add to calendar L3
Special Geometry over $ \mathbb C $ and $ \mathbb Q_p $
Abstract: The moduli space of Calabi-Yau manifolds have a natural geometrical structure that has come to be known as special geometry. This geometry will be reviewed in the complex context and it will be shown that much of the structure persists for p-adic Calabi-Yau manifolds.
Mon, 21/01/2008
11:00 		Joseph Conlon (Cambridge) String Theory Seminar Add to calendar L3
Mirror Mediation
Abstract: I show that the effective action of string compactifications has astructure that can naturally solve the supersymmetric flavour and CP problems. At leading order in the $ g_s $ and $ \alpha' $ expansions, the hidden sector factorises. The moduli space splits into two mirror parts that depend on Kähler and complex structure moduli. Holomorphy implies the flavour structure of the Yukawa couplings arises in only one part. In type IIA string theory flavour arises through the Kähler moduli sector and in type IIB flavour arises through the complex structure moduli sector. This factorisation gives a simple solution to the supersymmetric flavour and CP problems: flavour physics is generated in one sector while supersymmetry is broken in the mirror sector. This mechanism does not require the presence of gauge, gaugino or anomaly mediation and is explicitly realised by phenomenological models of IIB flux compactifications.
Mon, 28/01/2008
11:00 		James Gray (Oxford) String Theory Seminar Add to calendar L3
Algorithmic algebraic geometry, flux vacua and the STRINGVACUA Mathematica package
Abstract: For a large class of compactifications of interest in string phenomenology, the task of finding vacua of the four dimensional effective theories can be rewritten as a simple problem in algebraic geometry. Using recent developments in computer algebra, the task can then be rapidly dealt with in a completely algorithmic fashion. I shall review the main points of hep-th/0606122 and hep-th/0703249 in which this approach to finding vacua was set out, before moving on to a description of the Mathematica package STRINGVACUA (as described in arXiv:0801.1508 [hep-th]). This package uses the power of the computer algebra system Singular and provides a user-friendly implementation of our methods, intended for use by physicists, within the comfortable working environment of Mathematica.
Mon, 04/02/2008
11:00 		Wen Jiang (Oxford) String Theory Seminar Add to calendar L3
Yang-Mills Theory in Twistor Space
Abstract: The alternative action for Yang-Mills theory, which Lionel Mason formulated in twistor space, explains some of the simplicities of gluon scattering amplitudes. We will review the derivation of the familiar CSW rules concerning tree-level scattering, show that the `missing' three-point amplitude can be correctly recovered and elucidate the connection with the canonical Lagrangian approach of Mansfied, Morris, et. al.
Mon, 11/02/2008
11:00 		Clifford Burgess (Perimeter Institute and Cern) String Theory Seminar Add to calendar L3
Graphene and Evidence for Duality in Quantum Hall Systems
Abstract: Quantum Hall systems are characterized by a spectacular set of observations (universal low-temperature conductivity, critical behaviour and semi-circle laws for transitions between Quantum Hall states) that are more robust than would be expected from the detailed theory of underlying electron dynamics. The talk starts with a summary of these observations, and their derivation from the assumption that the important charge carriers at the low energies relevant to conductivity measurements are weakly interacting particles or vortices. This implies a large emergent duality symmetry (a level two subgroup of SL(2,Z)), whose presence underlies the robustness of the observations in question. The newly-discovered and unusual Quantum Hall properties of graphene are discussed as providing a new test of this picture.
Mon, 18/02/2008
11:00 		Paul Mansfield (Durham) String Theory Seminar Add to calendar L3
Seminar deferred to next term
Mon, 25/02/2008
11:00 		Bill Spence (QMW) String Theory Seminar Add to calendar L3
String inspired progress in perturbative gauge theory
Abstract: We discuss the string-inspired approach to gauge theory amplitudes prompted by the work of Alday and Maldacena, in particular its application to weak coupling.
Mon, 03/03/2008
11:00 		Dieter Luest (LMU-Muenchen and Max Planck Institut fuer Physik) String Theory Seminar Add to calendar L3
Seeing through the string landscape: domain walls and black holes
Abstract: We will discuss string $ AdS_4 $ domain wall solutions with stabilized moduli. These solutions are interesting, since they potentially induce decay processes between different vacua within the string landscape. Moreover, we discuss how black hole physics provide another tool of seeing through the vacuum landscape.

For any corrections/updates to these listings, please contact seminars [-at-] maths [dot] ox [dot] ac [dot] uk.

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