14:15
Holographic description of code CFTs
Abstract
Recently, a relation was introduced connecting codes of various types with the space of abelian (Narain) 2d CFTs. We extend this relation to provide holographic description of code CFTs in terms of abelian Chern-Simons theory in the bulk. For codes over the alphabet Z_p corresponding bulk theory is, schematically, U(1)_p times U(1)_{-p} where p stands for the level. Furthermore, CFT partition function averaged over all code theories for the codes of a given type is holographically given by the Chern-Simons partition function summed over all possible 3d geometries. This provides an explicit and controllable example of holographic correspondence where a finite ensemble of CFTs is dual to "topological/CS gravity" in the bulk. The parameter p controls the size of the ensemble and "how topological" the bulk theory is. Say, for p=1 any given Narain CFT is described holographically in terms of U(1)_1^n times U(1)_{-1}^n Chern-Simons, which does not distinguish between different 3d geometries (and hence can be evaluated on any of them). When p approaches infinity, the ensemble of code theories covers the whole Narain moduli space with the bulk theory becoming "U(1)-gravity" proposed by Maloney-Witten and Afkhami-Jeddi et al.
A Lagrangian Klein Bottle You Can't Squeeze
Abstract
Given a non-orientable Lagrangian surface L in a symplectic 4-manifold, how far
can the cohomology class of the symplectic form be deformed before there is no
longer a Lagrangian isotopic to L? I will properly introduce this and a
related question, both of which are less interesting for orientable
Lagrangians due to topological conditions. The majority of this talk will be
an exposition on Evans' 2020 work in which he solves this deformation
question for a particular Klein bottle. The proof employs the heavy machinery
of symplectic field theory and more classical pseudoholomorphic
curve theory to severely constrain the topology and intersection properties of
the limits of certain pseudoholomorphic curves under a process called
neck-stretching. The treatment of SFT-related material will be light and focus
mainly on how one can use the compactness theorem to prove interesting things.