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Leonardo Rastelli03/08/2026, 10:00
In this talk, I will first give a general overview of the S-matrix bootstrap program for large N QCD. I will then describe how to import the microscopic dynamics of the theory by incorporating the two-point function and pion form factor of the simplest local gauge invariant operator — the vector current.
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Alessandro Vichi03/08/2026, 11:15
In this talk I will consider the elastic scattering of Rho mesons in large N QCD . I will first present the bootstrap framework for scattering of spin one particles and discuss the constraints and expectations for this system. I will then present bounds on on-shell couplings based on various spectral assumptions.
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Marco Serone03/08/2026, 12:15
"We study 2-2 scattering amplitudes of two unequal scalars using the S-matrix bootstrap. Maximal analyticity does not hold, yet general bounds can be derived for arbitrary mass ratio between the two external particles. We discuss the main challenges one has to face in this set-up, such as the existence of pseudo-thresholds."
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Alexandre Homrich03/08/2026, 14:30
There is a longstanding dream of realizing large-N Yang-Mills theory in D = 3,4 as a theory of confining strings. So far, our knowledge of this putative string is restricted to low energies, where one can use an effective field theory to describe small deformations of a long flux tube. In this talk, I will describe what asymptotic freedom of the underlying gauge theory tells us about the...
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Antonio Antunes03/08/2026, 15:15
Integrable 2d QFTs with exact S-matrices and no particle production are one of the few examples of solvable interacting QFTs, especially in the absence of supersymmetry or conformal invariance. We discuss evidence that a similar structure can persist for QFTs in AdS2, manifesting itself in the absence of multi-twist operators in the OPE of the single-particle state in the dual CFT1. In...
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Waltraut Knop03/08/2026, 16:15
In this talk, we continue the tree-level S-matrix bootstrap program for quantum gravity in ten-dimensional theories with half-maximal supersymmetry. Imposing analyticity, crossing symmetry, unitarity, and Regge boundedness, we constrain weakly coupled UV completions of supergravity and derive bounds on effective field theory coefficients. We show how the heterotic and closed string theories...
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Agnese Bissi04/08/2026, 10:00
I will discuss how to deal with extremal correlators involving at least one 1/4 BPS operator. In particular, I will present an analysis of the different multiplets appearing in the operator product expansion and their consequences for the renormalizability of the correlators, using analytic superspace techniques. This talk is based on work in progress with Giulia Fardelli and Hector Puerta-Ramisa.
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Francesco Aprile04/08/2026, 11:15
I will describe the computation of a class of Heavy-Heavy-Light-Light (HHLL) correlators in which the heavy operator is a coherent state built from multi-graviton states. In N=4 SYM, this problem can be approached from several complementary perspectives, connecting gravity, string theory, and beautiful mathematics. Perturbatively, the leading-order contribution to the HHLL correlator is...
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Chris Beem04/08/2026, 12:15
I will describe the variant of unitarity for vertex algebras/chiral algebras that holds for those algebras related to four-dimensional N=2 SCFTs via the SCFT/VOA correspondence. (A weakened version also applies to a large class of boundary VOAs for three-dimensional N=4 theories.) I will survey some (very partial) classification results for graded unitary VOAs under strong technical...
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George Yuzhe Zhou04/08/2026, 14:30
It is useful to characterize a high energy state in a massive QFT by its particle number densities as a function of particle momenta. We describe how, in massive RG flows starting from a UV CFT, complex spin CFT data defines evolution equations for these densities as a function of the energy of the state. This picture naturally arises when considering the idea of detector matching. Detector...
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Nika Sokolova04/08/2026, 15:15
I discuss a thermal bootstrap setup for the Maldacena-Polyakov loop in the planar limit of N=4 Super Yang-Mills theory. In this limit, the spectrum of low-lying operators is accessible via integrability, specifically through the Quantum Spectral Curve. Our primary observables are two-point functions of operators inserted on the loop, which in this context is a thermal circle. Following recent...
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Cyuan-Han Chang04/08/2026, 16:15
We consider the average null energy condition (ANEC) and its higher-spin generalization and derive bounds on the TTT OPE coefficients in general CFTs, generalizing the Hofman-Maldacena conformal collider bounds. In particular, we consider ANEC and higher-spin ANEC in a mixed system of the stress tensor and the leading spin-4 operator. We obtain bounds on the TTT coefficients in 3D and 4D CFTs...
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Lorenzo Di Pietro05/08/2026, 10:00
I will discuss the definition and the consequences of Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking (SSB) for a quantum field theory on a rigid Anti-de Sitter (AdS) background. In particular, for continuous symmetries, I will review the existence of a (trivial) conformal manifold, and explain how to compute its metric from the two-point function of the bulk current. I will then discuss two applications: (1)...
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Aninda Sinha05/08/2026, 11:15
I will review the stringy dispersion relation and use it to study gravitational EFTs at low impact parameter. In particular, we will find that there is a remarkable organizational spectral structure that shows up at low impact parameter for a wide class of S-matrices. After feeding in the Eikonal support, we find Regge-like structures as well as black-hole-like unitarity capped support that...
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Yu Nakayama05/08/2026, 12:15
The Ising model in $d>2$ is characterized by the OPEs $\sigma \times \sigma = 1 + \epsilon + \cdots$ and $\epsilon \times \epsilon = 1 + \epsilon + \cdots$. In $d=2$, the OPE coefficient $C_{\epsilon\epsilon\epsilon}= 0$, and this is explained by duality, leading to solvability and the absence of fine-tuning. We explore the possibility of demanding $C_{\epsilon\epsilon\epsilon} = 0$ in higher...
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Joseph Lap05/08/2026, 14:30
In the conformal bootstrap, one typically focuses on static data: the scaling dimensions and OPE coefficients that characterize a given CFT. In this talk, I argue that the bootstrap philosophy can be fruitfully extended to real-time dynamics. I will study dynamical phase transitions, defined as non-analytic behavior of observables under Lorentzian time evolution. As a concrete example, I...
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William Pannell05/08/2026, 15:15
Complete generalizations of Zamolodchikov's c-theorem to higher dimensions remains the holy grail in the study of renormalization group flows. While in the intervening years there has been success in proving weak and strong monotonicity theorems in a variety of dimensions and contexts, the strongest version, gradient flow, remains much more elusive. After a brief review of monotonicity...
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Matthew Mitchell05/08/2026, 16:15
We perform a systematic classification of QFTs that contain Dirac fermions coupled to scalars, and that exhibit perturbative fixed points in the 4-ε expansion. These theories, which arise as quantum critical points of fermionic materials with scalar order parameters, exhibit nontrivial symmetry enhancements in 2+1 dimensions because Dirac spinors factorize to Majorana spinors. Our...
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Balt van Rees06/08/2026, 10:00
I will discuss the several things we know, believe or would like to be true about conformal correlation functions. I will focus in particular on the large ∆ limit corresponding to the flat-space limit of a gapped QFT in AdS. Examples are correlator bounds and their connection to Haag-Ruelle theory, the conformal dispersion relation, and Mellin space expressions for multi-point correlation functions.
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Simon Caron-Huot06/08/2026, 11:15
Massive particles with spin two appear naturally in scenarios where spacetime has extra dimensions. We analyze the possible interactions between such particles from the perspective of causality and unitarity of the S-matrix, assuming a separation between their mass and the higher-spin ($J\geq 3$) scale $\Lambda$ that signals a more dramatic breakdown of effective field theory. We tame the...
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Shota Komatsu06/08/2026, 12:15
It is believed that global symmetry cannot exist in UV-complete quantum gravity; even if there appears to be global symmetry at low energy, it is always secretly broken or gauged. I will present a non-perturbative argument for this in quantum gravity in AdS. The argument is for the shift symmetry or more generally spontaneously broken continuous symmetry, but applies beyond the semiclassical...
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Jeremy Mann06/08/2026, 14:30
In conformal field theory, the maximal Mellin analyticity conjecture states that all singularities of Mellin amplitudes arise from poles at the twists exchanged in the operator product expansion. For CFTs dual to quantum field theories in Anti de Sitter space, we explore the implications of this conjecture for multi-particle scattering amplitudes in the flat space limit. After motivating the...
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Stefanos Kousvos06/08/2026, 15:15
Yang-Mills theory in AdS$_4$ with Dirichlet boundary conditions is expected to undergo a transition as the AdS radius varies, since the boundary data is incompatible with confinement in flat space. Various mechanisms have been proposed for the disappearance of the Dirichlet boundary condition, which we discuss. From the boundary viewpoint, the associated CFT is a deformation of a generalised...
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Marten Reehorst06/08/2026, 16:15
Numerical conformal bootstrap bounds are commonly described as “rigorous,” yet as published they are not theorems: they hold at sampled points rather than over regions of parameter space, for a truncated rational approximation of the conformal blocks rather than the blocks themselves, for a finite list of spins rather than all spins, and only up to floating-point rounding. We address all four...
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Ning Su07/08/2026, 10:00
I will discuss the reconstruction program for 2d unitary rational CFTs. A key step is the “character level realizability problem”: given S, T, c, how to find all possible solutions to the holomorphic modular bootstrap equations. We invented a specialized integer scan algorithms to solve the problem at a very high S rank.
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Eric Perlmutter07/08/2026, 11:15
Based on 2607.02233 and work in progress
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Liam Fitzpatrick07/08/2026, 12:15
The 3d Ising CFT deformed by its Z2 odd sigma operator is one of the simplest examples in d>2 of a QFT built from a nontrivial UV fixed point. I will review the Fuzzy Sphere regulator approach to critical systems and describe results using the Fuzzy Sphere to obtain the spectrum of 3d Ising Field theory at finite and infinite volume, mainly focusing on the vacuum energy, lightest one-particle...
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Colum Flynn07/08/2026, 14:30
The Zamolodchikov recursion relations are widely used in numerical conformal bootstrap, especially in three dimensions, as they provide an efficient way to compute conformal blocks. In even dimensions, however, they are not well understood because conformal blocks can develop double poles. We develop the general theory for conformal blocks with double poles by using representation theory of...
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Petar Tadić07/08/2026, 15:15
I will present recent progress on the five-point bootstrap of the critical Ising model in three dimensions. A central idea is to use disconnected five-point correlators as an approximation to the truncated part of the spectrum in the interacting theory. I will explain the method in detail and show how it can be used to extract OPE coefficients from five-point data. I will then compare the...
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Giulia Fardelli07/08/2026, 16:15
In this talk, I will discuss recent progress toward understanding the spectrum of multi-trace operators in $\mathcal{N}=4$ SYM at large 't Hooft coupling and at tree level in the large-N expansion, focusing on triple-trace operators in the R-symmetry singlet sector. While partial information about these operators can be extracted from four-point functions, a complete understanding remains...
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David Poland10/08/2026, 10:00
I'll describe recent explorations of the idea of reorganizing CFT data into "moment" variables, describing statistical properties of the OPE measure for a given 4-point function. These moments capture coarse-grained information about the CFT data and are tightly constrained by crossing symmetry even at large external dimensions, giving rise to a powerful new way to map out theory space.
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Vasileios Niarchos10/08/2026, 11:15
How much information is needed to reconstruct a correlation function in conformal field theory? Surprisingly, very little. I will introduce a novel approach based on neural networks that produces a remarkably accurate approximation of scalar correlation functions in arbitrary CFTs in any spacetime dimension from a few input data. I will present a wide variety of examples and discuss the...
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Xinan Zhou10/08/2026, 12:15
In this talk, I will explain why correlation functions involving giant gravitons are naturally viewed as correlators of local operators in the presence of zero-dimensional defects. I will present strong-coupling results obtained by combining this defect perspective with analytic bootstrap techniques. I will also show that the defect formulation reveals hidden higher-dimensional structures,...
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Barak Gabai10/08/2026, 14:30
We recently initiated the study of flux tubes in confining gauge theories placed in a rigid Andi-de Sitter (AdS) background, which serves as an infrared regulator. This setup provides a controlled arena to probe a central question in confinement: how the effective string worldsheet degrees of freedom emerge from the underlying UV gauge theory. Varying the AdS radius from large to small...
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Philine van Vliet10/08/2026, 15:15
Conformal defects break part of the symmetry of a bulk CFT. The broken Ward identities lead to very general sum rules on the defect CFT data as well as on the data of bulk operators in the presence of a defect. These sum rules have many applications e.g. in perturbation theory, and can also be used in combination with the numerical bootstrap. In this talk I will use them to bootstrap a...
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Zechuan Zheng10/08/2026, 16:15
Analytic functionals provide a basis for the crossing equation in which the functional coefficients correspond directly to the expansion of conformal blocks in terms of AdS Witten diagrams. This perspective offers a more natural formulation of the conformal bootstrap, both analytically and numerically. Growing evidence suggests that the analytic functional basis is significantly more efficient...
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Denis Karateev11/08/2026, 10:00
I will discuss whether the rubber-sheet picture of gravity can be made into a consistent quantum field theoretic model. The setup is a vibrating four-dimensional brane embedded in a higher-dimensional flat space-time, with matter confined to the brane. The induced metric is built from the brane fluctuations (phonons), which mediate forces between matter sources. I will explain why the generic...
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Marco Meineri11/08/2026, 11:15
I will present a mechanism that ensures that conformal defects placed at the boundary of Anti-de Sitter spacetime support operators whose dimension is protected. Some consequences of this fact on the physics of confinement in AdS and on the moduli of theories of quantum gravity will be discussed as well.
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Sridip Pal11/08/2026, 12:15
Using hydrodynamics, r.k.a. thermal effective field theory, I will show that locality and Weyl invariance constrain the coefficients of various angular-velocity structures appearing in the high-temperature expansion of the thermal partition function (Z) of even-dimensional CFTs. This leads to an infinite hierarchy of relations among these coefficients. Remarkably, the first of these...
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Thekla Lepper11/08/2026, 14:30
Defect conformal field theories (DCFTs) provide a universal framework for describing the low energy interaction of heavy degrees of freedom with light excitations. In a DCFT part of the Poincaré symmetry is broken explicitly. However, the fundamental laws of our world are Poincaré invariant and any breaking of space-time symmetries must be spontaneous. In particular, extended and thin objets...
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Wenliang Li11/08/2026, 15:15
The three-dimensional classical O(N) model with a boundary has received renewed interest due to the discovery of the extraordinary-log boundary universality class for 2≤N<Nc. The critical value Nc and the exponent of the boundary correlation function are related to certain amplitudes in the normal universality class. To determine their precise values, we revisit the 3d O(N) boundary conformal...
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Gordon Rogelberg11/08/2026, 16:15
I will discuss a class of universal dynamics that arise from the worldline effective action of a free massive scalar in AdS_{d+1}. Given a "heavying" sequence of CFT four-point functions of identical operators with increasing scaling dimension, I will provide necessary and sufficient conditions for their limits to be described universally in various Lorentzian kinematic regimes. These results...
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Sean Hartnoll12/08/2026, 10:00
I will explain how the analyticity and boundedness properties underpinning the S-matrix bootstrap can be adapted to constrain the dynamics of quantum mechanical lattice models. The basic quantity will be the retarded Green’s function, for which we obtain strong analyticity and boundedness properties using the Lieb-Robinson bound, a fundamental result for local lattice dynamics that I will...
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Henry Lin12/08/2026, 11:15
I will present new results on the thermal phase diagram of the ungauged matrix quantum mechanics, including tests of new and old conjectures using matrix bootstrap data. I will also discuss the adjoint sector of BFSS at small and large R-charge.
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Pedro Vieira12/08/2026, 12:15
We study a generalization of a two matrix model, proposed by J. Hoppe in '89. At strong coupling, we unveil an emergent area preserving diffeomorphism symmetry of this model, which allows us to completely solve it at large N. The solution for all n-point connected correlators takes the form of a Witten diagram-like expansion in an emergent two-dimensional dual spacetime. We conclude with...
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Adrien Martina12/08/2026, 14:30
Yang–Mills matrix models are simple yet rich laboratories for studying emergent geometry and holography. Some of them, such as IKKT and polarised IKKT, are proposed matrix descriptions of type IIB string theory. In this talk, I will focus on mass-deformed Yang–Mills matrix models in the strong ’t Hooft coupling limit, where a dual supergravity description may be expected. The central question...
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Jessica Yeh12/08/2026, 15:15
We develop a bootstrap approach to Euclidean and Lorentzian two-point correlators in quantum mechanical systems. Using positivity constraints together with the Heisenberg equations of motion, the problem can be formulated as a semidefinite program. Solving this problem in its primal form naively requires time discretization and hence non-rigorous. We show that by going to the dual formulation,...
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Daniele Pavarini12/08/2026, 16:15
We apply the conformal bootstrap to holographic four-dimensional N=2 superconformal field theories in the planar limit. We employ a dispersion relation that reconstructs the correlator from its double discontinuity, which naturally isolates the single-trace spectrum. Supersymmetric localization provides an additional exact constraint that makes the bootstrap sensitive to the gauge coupling....
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Fernando Alday13/08/2026, 10:00
Understanding string theory in curved spacetime is an outstanding problem, as the standard RNS formalism has difficulty handling Ramond-Ramond (RR) flux, which is often present in curved spacetimes. For anti-de Sitter (AdS) spacetime, a new bottom-up formalism for string scattering is the Worldsheet Bootstrap. This method combines the constraints of conformal symmetry with an ansatz for the...
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Aidan Herderschee13/08/2026, 11:15
Tree-level string amplitudes may be fixed by a remarkably small set of consistency conditions. I will discuss bootstrap approaches to open and closed strings in four dimensions, focusing on planar N=4 super-Yang-Mills theory and N=8 supergravity deformed by higher-derivative operators. In both cases, we impose parity invariance on selected six-scalar amplitudes. We combine this condition with...
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Volker Schomerus13/08/2026, 12:15
Thermal correlation functions provide a powerful window into the heavy sector of conformal field theories, complementing the information accessible through conventional bootstrap techniques. In this talk I will review recent progress on the thermal bootstrap, focusing on the extraction of spectral densities and heavy-heavy-light OPE coefficients from thermal one-point functions. After...
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Rishi Mouland13/08/2026, 14:30
We consider AdS/CFT in 3 to 6 CFT dimensions with half-maximal SUSY. Such setups feature flavour branes, whose gluon modes we can scatter to probe certain 4-point functions. The analytic bootstrap has successfully fixed several of the corrections to these 4-point functions in a large N expansion; we perform a bulk calculation of the first that is not, which involves the exchange of gravitons....
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Nat Levine13/08/2026, 15:15
Extremal solutions and functionals play an important role in the conformal bootstrap. One may wonder if it is possible to rigorously prove that they exist, and to deduce their properties. This is a question about what happens when numerics have fully converged, i.e. at Lambda=infinity. In the simplest setting of OPE maximisation in 1d CFT, we prove that extremal solutions exist using the...
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Kamran Salehi Vaziri13/08/2026, 16:15
In this talk, we will review some recent progress in QFT in de Sitter spacetime. We will use the Hilbert-space construction and representation theory of the de Sitter symmetry group, i.e. the Euclidean conformal group, to derive the spectral decomposition of the bulk two-point function and the conformal partial wave expansion of the boundary four-point function. In both cases, unitarity of the...
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Zohar Komargodski14/08/2026, 10:00
I will describe how placing CFTs on pp-wave backgrounds can teach us about large-spin operators. Heisenberg symmetries and locality control both light-cone/Regge and large-twist regimes, imply a new (3+1)-dimensional unitarity bound, and yield applications to gauge theories.
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Silviu Pufu14/08/2026, 11:15
50 years ago, Coleman introduced two-dimensional quantum electrodynamics coupled to two charged massive fermions. While he elucidated much of the physics of this model, he listed three puzzles at the end of his paper. In this talk, I will present new analytical and numerical calculations that help solve these three puzzles. The analytical computations use two-loop RG, integrability, and...
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Tom Hartman14/08/2026, 12:15
A natural metric on four-dimensional QFTs was introduced by Jack and Osborn in their work on the local renormalization group. This metric determines the flow of the a-anomaly and is closely tied to the a-theorem, but it is not manifestly positive. In this talk I will show that the Jack-Osborn metric is related to the ANEC operator, and discuss more broadly the connections among three different...
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Elisabetta Armanini14/08/2026, 14:30
We study scattering on the Coulomb branch of planar N=4 SYM. At weak 't Hooft coupling scattering amplitudes can be computed using Feynman diagrams and the relevant degrees of freedom are quarks and gluons. At strong 't Hooft coupling the dynamics is captured by string scattering in flat space. Dual conformal symmetry makes it possible to constrain the unitarity properties and the spectrum of...
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Ryan Lanzetta14/08/2026, 15:15
In lattice studies of line defects, such as entanglement cuts or monodromy defects in 2+1d, or line defects in general dimensions, non-trivial geometries of the defect are typically forced to contain sharp corners or cusps. Each cusp contributes to the overall finite size scaling of the observable via its associated cusp anomalous dimension. I will present simple bounds on the cusp anomalous...
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Mitchell Woolley14/08/2026, 16:15
We describe progress toward the superconformal bootstrap of the 6d (2,0) SCFTs. The first step was achieved in [2506.08094], where we used the twist of 6d (2,0) SCFTs to W-algebras to extract an infinite set of protected CFT data. As an application, we demonstrated the consistency of this information with protected higher derivative corrections in the holographic dual on AdS_7 x S^4/Z_o. A...
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