N3.12

Perturbation theory is one of the main tools in the modern physicist's toolbox to solve problems. Indeed, it can often the only approach we have to computing any quantity of interest in a physical theory. However, perturbative contributions can actually grow as we increase the order. Thus, many perturbative series in physics are asymptotic, with 0 radius of convergence. In this talk, I will describe resurgence, which gives us a way of treat such series, by adding non-perturbative effects in a systematic manner.

Junior Strings is a seminar series where DPhil students present topics of common interest that do not necessarily overlap with their own research area. This is primarily aimed at PhD students and post-docs but everyone is welcome.

Anomalies characterize the breaking of a classical symmetry at the quantum level. They play an important role in quantum field theories, and constitute robust observables which appear in various contexts from phenomenological particle physics to black hole microstates, or to classify phases of matter. The anomalies of a d-dimensional QFT are naturally encoded via descent equations into the so-called anomaly polynomial in (d+2)-dimensions. The aim of this seminar is to review the descent procedure, anomaly polynomial, anomaly inflow, and in particular their realisation in M-theory. While this is quite an old story, there has been some more recent developments involving holography that I'll describe if time permits. 

Junior Strings is a seminar series where DPhil students present topics of common interest that do not necessarily overlap with their own research area. This is primarily aimed at PhD students and post-docs but everyone is welcome.

 One of the main entries in the AdS/CFT dictionary is a relation between the bulk on-shell partition function with specified boundary conditions and the generating function of correlation functions of primary operators in the boundary CFT. In this talk, I will show how to construct a similar relation for gravity in 4d asymptotically flat spacetimes. For simplicity, we will restrict to the leading infrared sector, where a careful treatment of soft modes and their canonical partners leads to a non-vanishing on-shell action. I will show that this action localizes to a codimension-2 surface and coincides with the generating function of 2d CFT correlators involving insertions of Kac-Moody currents. The latter were previously shown, using effective field theory methods, to reproduce the leading soft graviton theorems in 4d. I will conclude with comments on the implications of these results for the computation of soft charge fluctuations in the vacuum. 

Junior Strings is a seminar series where DPhil students present topics of common interest that do not necessarily overlap with their own research area. This is primarily aimed at PhD students and post-docs but everyone is welcome.

We will be joined by Dr Brigitte Stenhouse from the Open University to discuss harassment, particularly in academic settings. 

In our first ever joint event with WISOx (Oxford Women in Statistics), we will be having a panel discussion about the hidden labour of minorities, such as extra committee work, editorial work, etc. 

We will be joined by panellists Helen Byrne (Maths) and Gesine Reinert (Stats). 

Join us for our first event of term to discuss those topics which are slightly taboo. We’ll be talking about periods, pregnancy, chronic illness, gender identity... This event is open to all but we will be taking extra steps to make sure it is a safe space for everyone. 

We will be joined by Tim LaRock, president of the UCU, to talk about everything money and work related, and how these issues intersect with being a minority. Lunch will be provided.