Journal Club

Target Group of Theoretical Physics Journal Club is PhD students and postdocs doing research on different topics of theoretical physics. Here we can meet to learn and discuss classical or topics of theoretical physics.
Organizer: Matthew Magill (matthew.magill@physics.uu.se)

Sphere Packing and Quantum Gravity
Speaker: Alexander Söderberg
Papers:

• Sphere Packing and Quantum Gravity 1905.01319
• Modular Bootstrap Revisited 1608.06241

Date: 14 February 2020, 1.30 - 3.00 pm
Location: Room Å4003

Froissart bound for/from CFT Mellin amplitudes
Speaker: Parijat Dey
Papers:

• Froissart bound for/from CFT Mellin amplitudes: 1911.05974

Date: 07 February 2020, 1.30 - 3.00 pm
Location: Room Å4003

GSO projections via SPT phases
Speaker: Luca Cassia
Papers:

• GSO projections via SPT phases: 1908.04805
• Topological Superconductors on Superstring Worldsheets: 1911.11780

Date: 24 January 2020, 1.30 - 3.00 pm
Location: Room Å4003

Higher U(1) Charge Models in type IIB and their F-theory lift
Speaker: Damián K. Mayorga Pena
Abstract:
We construct models with U(1) gauge group and matter with charges up to 6, in the context of type IIB compactifications. We show explicitly that models with charges up to 4 can be derived from corresponding models in F-theory by applying the Sen weak coupling limit. We derive which type IIB models should be the limit of charge 5 and 6 F-theory models. Explicit six dimensional type IIB models with maximal charge 5 and 6 are constructed on an algebraic K3 surface that is the double cover of CP^2. By using type IIB results we are also able to rediscover the F-theory charge 4 model in a straightforward way.
Date: 15 January 2020, 1.30 - 3.00 pm
Location: Room Å80101

New Progress in Entanglement Wedge Reconstruction
Speaker: Adan Bzowski
Papers:

• Islands outside the horizon [https://arxiv.org/abs/1910.11077]
• Entanglement Wedge Reconstruction and the Information Paradox [https://arxiv.org/abs/1905.08255]

Date: 13 December  2019, 1.30-3.00 pm
Location: Room Å4003

What is spin?
Speaker: Simon Streib
Papers:

•  "Angular momentum in spin-phonon processes" by D. A. Garanin and E. M. Chudnovsky [https://journals.aps.org/prb/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevB.92.024421]
• "The photon angular momentum controversy: Resolution of a conflict
  between laser optics and particle physics" by E. Leader [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0370269316001945]
• "What is spin?" by H. C. Ohanian [https://aapt.scitation.org/doi/10.1119/1.14580]
• "How Electrons Spin" by C. Sebens [https://arxiv.org/abs/1806.01121]

Date: 29 November  2019, 1.30-3.00 pm
Location: Room Å4003
Abstract: Spin is an important property of elementary particles and also of quasiparticles, such as magnons and phonons. A physical picture of spin is not available for point particles, but it is for fields. I will discuss as examples the angular momentum of phonons, photons, and electrons based on their corresponding fields: the elastic, electromagnetic, and Dirac fields. In the case of the photon, the question if it is even possible to separate the angular momentum into orbital and spin contributions in a gauge-invariant way has only recently been resolved. The goal of this talk is to present a unified picture of what spin actually is and to invite discussion and criticism of this point of view.

Holographic Complexity: Stretching the Horizon of an Evaporating Black Hole
Speaker: Watse Sybesma
Date: 22 November  2019, 1.30-3.00 pm
Location: Room Å4003
Abstract: Holographic complexity can be obtained from probing beyond the horizon of a black hole using a specific prescription. Holographic complexity is conjectured to be dual to a notion of complexity as defined in quantum circuits, but it can also be interesting purely in the context of black holes, as I will argue, due to its relation to black hole entropy. In this talk I present the holographic complexity of an evaporating black hole in the semi-classical Russo-Thorlacius-Susskind (RST) model. By considering the stretched horizon of the evolving black hole, one obtains sensible results for the rate of growth of the complexity, with an early onset of order the black hole scrambling time followed by an extended period where the rate of growth tracks the shrinking area of the stretched horizon as the black hole evaporates.

Geometric engineering of 6D SUGRA and SCFT's using F-theory
Speaker: Paul-Konstantin Oehlmann
Date: 15 November 2019, 1.30-3.00 pm
Location: Room Å4004

Supersymmetric Wilson loops in two dimensions and duality
Speaker: Rodolfo Panerai
Papers: https://arxiv.org/abs/1812.01315 by Rodolfo Panerai, Matteo Poggi, Domenico Seminara
Date:  8 November 2019, 1.30-3.00 pm
Location: Room 1113 ITC

Scattering in the High Energy Limit of Planar N=4 SYM
Speaker: Bram Verbeek
Papers:

• https://arxiv.org/abs/1606.08807 by Vittorio Del Duca, Stefan Druc, James Drummond, Claude Duhr, Falko Dulat, Robin Marzucca, Georgios Papathanasiou, Bram Verbeek
• https://arxiv.org/abs/1801.10605 by Vittorio Del Duca, Stefan Druc, James Drummond, Claude Duhr, Falko Dulat, Robin Marzucca, Georgios Papathanasiou, Bram Verbeek
• https://arxiv.org/abs/1811.10570 by Robin Marzucca, Bram Verbeek

Date: 25 October 2019, 1.30-3.00 pm
Location: Room Å4003

Punctured horizons
Speaker: Pieter Bomans
Paper:  TBA
Date: 18 October  2019, 1.30-3.00 pm
Location: Room 1113 ITC
Abstract: In this talk we study the IR dynamics of M- and D-branes wrapping a Riemann surface with punctures. From a field theory perspective this is a very natural operation which results in many interesting IR SCFTs. We present the holographically dual picture of these SCFTs and discuss how to treat the singularities from a lower dimensional supergravity point of view. In all cases the IR dynamics are governed by a single second order equation -- the Liouville equation. As an example we study in detail a class of $\mathcal{N}=1$ SCFTs obtained by wrapping M5-branes on complex curves with prescribed singularities. We present explicit $AdS_5$ backgrounds describing the IR fixed points of these theories at large $N$ and for a subset of these solutions we explicitly construct the dual four dimensional quiver gauge theories.

Instantons in various dimensions
Speaker: Nicolo Piazzalunga
Date: 11 October 2019, 1.30-3.00 pm
Location: Room 2245 ITC

Entanglement Entropy in String Theory
Speaker: Usman Naseer
Date: 4 October 2019, 1.30-3.00 pm
Location: Room 1145 ITC

Ultraviolet Structure of N=8 Supergravity
Speaker: Alex Edison
Papers:

• https://arxiv.org/abs/1804.09311 by Zvi Bern, John Joseph Carrasco, Wei-Ming Chen, Alex Edison, Henrik Johansson, Julio Parra-Martinez, Radu Roiban, Mao Zeng
• https://arxiv.org/abs/1909.02003 by Alex Edison, Enrico Herrmann, Julio Parra-Martinez, Jaroslav Trnka

Date: 27 September 2019, 1.30-3.00 pm
Location: Room Å80101

Thermal CFTs in momentum space
Speaker: Andrea Manenti
Papers: https://arxiv.org/abs/1905.01355 by Andrea Manenti
Date: 24 May 2019, 1.30-3.00 pm
Location: Room Å2003

Comments on One-Form Global Symmetries and Their Gauging in 3d and 4d
Speaker: Konstantina Polydorou
Papers: https://arxiv.org/abs/1812.04716 by Po-Shen Hsin, Ho Tat Lam, Nathan Seiberg
Date: 17 May 2019, 1.30-3.00 pm
Location: Room Å2003

The light-ray OPE and conformal colliders
Speaker: Tobias Hansen
Papers:

• https://arxiv.org/abs/1904.05905 by Murat Kologlu, Petr Kravchuk, David Simmons-Duffin, Alexander Zhiboedov
• https://arxiv.org/abs/1905.01311 by Murat Kologlu, Petr Kravchuk, David Simmons-Duffin, Alexander Zhiboedov

Date: 10 May 2019, 1.30-3.00 pm
Location: Room Å2003

Massive On-Shell Supersymmetric Scattering Amplitudes
Speaker: Gustav Mogull
Papers:

• https://arxiv.org/abs/1902.07204 by Aidan Herderschee, Seth Koren, Timothy Trott
• https://arxiv.org/abs/1902.07205 by Aidan Herderschee, Seth Koren, Timothy Trott

Date: 3 May 2019, 1.30-3.00 pm
Location: Room Å2003

Schur correlation functions on S³ x S¹
Speaker: Anastasios Gorantis
Papers: https://arxiv.org/abs/1903.03623 by Yiwen Pan, Wolfger Peelaers
Date: 26 April 2019, 1.30-3.00 pm
Location: Room Å2003

A New SU(2) Anomaly
Speaker: Luca Cassia
Papers: https://arxiv.org/abs/1810.00844 by Juven Wang, Xiao-Gang Wen, Edward Witten
Date: 12 April 2019, 1.30-3.00 pm
Location: Room Å2003

On W-representations of β- and q,t-deformed matrix models
Speaker: Rebecca Lodin
Papers: https://arxiv.org/abs/1901.02811 by A. Morozov
Date: 5 April 2019, 1.30-3.00 pm
Location: Room Å2003

A New SU(2) Anomaly [postponed]
Speaker: Luca Cassia
Papers: https://arxiv.org/abs/1810.00844 by Juven Wang, Xiao-Gang Wen, Edward Witten
Date: 29 March 2019, 1.30-3.00 pm
Location: Room Å2003

Baryons as Quantum Hall Droplets
Speaker: Vladimir Procházka
Papers: https://arxiv.org/abs/1812.09253 by Zohar Komargodski
Date: 15 March 2019, 1.30-3.00 pm
Location: Room Å2003

Twisted Holography
Speaker: Lorenzo Ruggeri
Papers: https://arxiv.org/abs/1812.09257 by Kevin Costello, Davide Gaiotto
Date: 1 March 2019, 1.30-3.00 pm
Location: Room Å4005

Remarks on the Green-Schwarz terms of six-dimensional supergravity theories
Speaker: Matthew Magill
Papers: https://arxiv.org/abs/1808.01334 by Samuel Monnier, Gregory W. Moore
Date: 22 February 2019, 1.30-3.00 pm
Location: Room 1145 ITC

Asymptotic Fragility, Near AdS₂ Holography and $T\bar{T}$
Speaker: Adam Bzowski
Papers: https://arxiv.org/abs/1706.06604 by Sergei Dubovsky, Victor Gorbenko, Mehrdad Mirbabayi
Date: 15 February 2019, 1.30-3.00 pm
Location: Room 1145 ITC

Simplifying large spin bootstrap in Mellin space
Speaker: Parijat Dey
Papers: https://arxiv.org/abs/1709.06110 by Parijat Dey, Kausik Ghosh, Aninda Sinha
Date: 8 February 2019, 1.30-3.00 pm
Location: Room 2215 ITC

Scattering of Spinning Black Holes from Exponentiated Soft Factors
Speaker: Alexander Ochirov
Papers: https://arxiv.org/abs/1812.06895 by Alfredo Guevara, Alexander Ochirov, Justin Vines
Date: 1 February 2019, 1.30-3.00 pm
Location: Room Å4003

Making wormholes traversable using non-local couplings
Speaker: Suvendu Giri
Papers:

• https://arxiv.org/abs/1608.05687 by Gao, Jafferis and Wall
• https://arxiv.org/abs/1704.05333 by Maldacena, Stanford and Yang

Date: 18 January 2019, 1.30-3.00 pm
Location: Room Å4003

Deep learning in the heterotic orbifold landscape
Speaker: Robin Schneider
Paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/1811.05993 by Andreas Mütter, Erik Parr, Patrick K.S. Vaudrevange

Date: 7 December 2018, 1.30-3.00 pm

Location: Oseenska Rummet Å73121

Searching for Axions and the String Axiverse in the Cosmo
Speaker: Luca Visinelli
Paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/1809.06382 by Luca Visinelli, Sunny Vagnozzi

Date: 30 November 2018, 1.30-3.00 pm

Location: Oseenska Rummet Å73121
Abstract: The low-energy limit of several string theories feature what is known as the “axiverse”, a plethora of light axions with masses spanning various orders of magnitude. I will first discuss astrophysical and cosmological constraints on axions at either end of this spectrum, using data from the cosmic microwave background anisotropies and from the gravitational microlensing. I then show how to assess the string parameters using a series of Bayesian analyses that take into account current limits on the tensor-to-scalar ratio and the primordial isocurvature fraction.

The many faces of N=1*
Speaker: Jesse van Muiden

Date: 23 November 2018, 1.30-3.00 pm

Location: Oseenska Rummet Å73121
Abstract: In this talk I will give the status of our latest findings concerning the rich space of vacua in N=1*. This is especially interesting because the theory has a confining phase and the supersymmetry allows us to study this phase in a controlled way. First I will give an overview of the construction of the N=1* theory and its vacua. Then I will move on to describe the newly found 10D supergravity dual. Finally I will report on forthcoming work in which we study the space of vacua and its phases through S⁴ and line operators.

Microscopic origin of the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy of supersymmetric AdS₅ black holes
Speaker: Arash Arabi Ardehali
Papers: – https://arxiv.org/abs/1810.11442 by Alejandro Cabo-Bizet, Davide Cassani, Dario Martelli, Sameer Murthy
               – https://arxiv.org/abs/1810.12067 by Sunjin Choi, Joonho Kim, Seok Kim, June Nahmgoong

Date: 16 November 2018, 1.30-3.00 pm

Location: Oseenska Rummet Å73121

The massive IIA origin of 2d CFTs
Speaker: Nicolo Petri, Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey
Papers:  – https://arxiv.org/abs/1707.06152 by Giuseppe Dibitetto, Nicolò Petri
               – https://arxiv.org/abs/1707.06154 by Giuseppe Dibitetto, Nicolò Petri
               – https://arxiv.org/abs/1807.06602 by Giuseppe Dibitetto, Gabriele Lo Monaco, Achilleas Passias, Nicolò Petri, Alessandro Tomasiello
               – https://arxiv.org/abs/1807.07768 by Giuseppe Dibitetto, Nicolò Petri

Date: 9 November 2018, 1.30-3.00 pm

Location: Oseenska Rummet Å73121
Abstract: Even if AdS₃/CFT₂ holography has been intensively studied in literature, the construction of 2d CFTs in string theory is still rather obscure. In this talk I will discuss some insights in this direction coming from a new class of exact AdS₃ solutions in massive IIA supergravity. Within this class, some of these 10d backgrounds are derived by uplifting particular warped AdS₃ solutions in 7d and 6d gauged supergravities featuring respectively AdS₇ and AdS₆ asymptotics. In these cases the corresponding dual 2d SCFTs are realized as conformal defects within the higher-dimensional SCFTs dual to the asymptotics. I will discuss about the brane intersections underlying these solutions and, in particular, on how the emergence of AdS₃ in massive IIA is deeply related to D2 branes. To support this statement I will present a very simple brane solution involving only D2 branes and O8 planes with near-horizon given by a warped product of AdS₃ with a squashed 7-sphere as internal space. In spite of the simplicity of this supergravity solution, the construction of the dual SCFT 2d is quite problematic, therefore I will conclude discussing these issues and the possible strategies to get rid of them.

2-group symmetries
Speaker: Yongchao Lu
Papers: – https://arxiv.org/abs/1412.5148 by Davide Gaiotto, Anton Kapustin, Nathan Seiberg, Brian Willett
                – https://arxiv.org/abs/1508.04770 by Eric Sharpe
                – https://arxiv.org/abs/1704.02330 by Lakshya Bhardwaj, Yuji Tachikawa
                – https://arxiv.org/abs/1712.09542 by Yuji Tachikawa
                – https://arxiv.org/abs/1802.04790 by Clay Cordova, Thomas T. Dumitrescu, Kenneth Intriligator
                – https://arxiv.org/abs/1803.09336 by Francesco Benini, Clay Cordova, Po-Shen Hsin

Date: 2 November 2018, 1.30-3.00 pm

Location: Oseenska Rummet Å73121

2-group symmetries
Speaker: Yongchao Lu
Papers: – https://arxiv.org/abs/1412.5148 by Davide Gaiotto, Anton Kapustin, Nathan Seiberg, Brian Willett
                – https://arxiv.org/abs/1508.04770 by Eric Sharpe
                – https://arxiv.org/abs/1704.02330 by Lakshya Bhardwaj, Yuji Tachikawa
                – https://arxiv.org/abs/1712.09542 by Yuji Tachikawa
                – https://arxiv.org/abs/1802.04790 by Clay Cordova, Thomas T. Dumitrescu, Kenneth Intriligator
                – https://arxiv.org/abs/1803.09336 by Francesco Benini, Clay Cordova, Po-Shen Hsin

Date: 26 October 2018, 1.30-3.00 pm

Location: Oseenska Rummet Å73121

On the Polyakov-Mellin bootstrap
Speaker: Alexander Söderberg
Paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/1809.10975 by Rajesh Gopakumar, Aninda Sinha

Date: 19 October 2018, 1.30-3.00 pm

Location: Room Å4005

Generalized Global Symmetries​
Speaker: Guido Festuccia
Paper: – https://arxiv.org/abs/1412.5148 by Davide Gaiotto, Anton Kapustin, Nathan Seiberg, Brian Willett
            – https://arxiv.org/abs/1802.04790 by Clay Cordova, Thomas T. Dumitrescu, Kenneth Intriligator

Date: 12 October 2018, 1.30-3.00 pm

Location: Room Å80127

Generalized Global Symmetries​
Speaker: Guido Festuccia
Paper: – https://arxiv.org/abs/1412.5148 by Davide Gaiotto, Anton Kapustin, Nathan Seiberg, Brian Willett
            – https://arxiv.org/abs/1802.04790 by Clay Cordova, Thomas T. Dumitrescu, Kenneth Intriligator
Date: 5 October 2018, 1.30-3.00 pm

Location: Room Å80115

From Scattering Amplitudes to Classical Potentials in the Post-Minkowskian Expansion
Speaker: Fei Teng
Paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/1808.02489 by Clifford Cheung, Ira Z. Rothstein, Mikhail P. Solon

Date: 21 September 2018, 1.30-3.00 pm

Location: Oseenska Rummet Å73121

Introduction to KKLT
Speaker: Giuseppe Dibitetto

Date: 14 September 2018, 1.30-3.00 pm

Location: Oseenska Rummet Å73121

A Duality Web in 2+1 Dimensions and Condensed Matter Physics
Speaker: Vladimir Procházka
Paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/1606.01989, by Nathan Seiberg, T. Senthil, Chong Wang and Edward Witten

Date: 1 June 2018, 1.30-3.00 pm

Location: Oseenska Rummet Å73121

Three-dimensional dualities with bosons and fermions
Speaker: Antonio Pittelli
Paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/1712.00020, by Francesco Benini

Date: 21 May 2018, 1.30-3.00 pm

Location: Room Å3419

ADHM and the 4d Quantum Hall Effect
Speaker: Anastasios Gorantis
Paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/1710.09833, by Alec Barns-Graham, Nick Dorey, Nakarin Lohitsiri, David Tong and Carl Turner

Date: 11 May 2018, 1.30-3.00 pm

Location: Oseenska Rummet Å73121

Recent S-matrix approaches to Conformal Field Theory
Speaker: Carlos Cardona (NBI)

Date: 4 May 2018, 1.30-3.00 pm

Location: Oseenska Rummet Å73121
Abstract: I would like to discuss some interesting recent developments on extracting conformal field theory data from the OPE expansion by means of S-matrix techniques. Due to the Journal Club format of the talk, I will review the OPE inversion formula developed in arXiv:1703.00278 as well as comment on its translation to Mellin space arXiv:1803.05086 and some potential applications.

Dual Boundary Conditions in 3d SCFT's
Speaker: Konstantina Polydorou
Paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/1712.07654 by Tudor Dimofte, Davide Gaiotto and Natalie M. Paquette

Date: 27 April 2018, 1.30-3.00 pm

Location: Oseenska Rummet Å73121

Phases of N=1 theories in 2+1 dimensions
Speaker: Aleksandr Popolitov
Paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/1802.10130 by Vladimir Bashmakov, Jaume Gomis, Zohar Komargodski and Adar Sharon

Date: 20 April 2018, 1.30-3.00 pm

Location: Oseenska Rummet Å73121

N=1 gauge dynamics in R³×S¹
Speaker: Arash Arabi Ardehali
Papers: – Instantons and (super-) symmetry breaking in (2+1) dimensions by Affleck, Harvey, and Witten (1982)
              – https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/9607163, by Nathan Seiberg and Edward Witten
              – https://arxiv.org/abs/1305.3924, by Ofer Aharony, Shlomo S. Razamat, Nathan Seiberg and Brian Willett

Date: 13 April 2018, 1.30-3.00 pm

Location: Oseenska Rummet Å73121

Vertex operator algebras, Higgs branches, and modular differential equations
Speaker: Yiwen Pan
Papers: – https://arxiv.org/abs/1707.07679, by Christopher Beem and Leonardo Rastelli
              – https://arxiv.org/abs/1312.5344, by Christopher Beem, Madalena Lemos, Pedro Liendo, Wolfger Peelaers, Leonardo Rastelli and Balt C. van Rees

Date: 6 April 2018, 1.30-3.00 pm

Location: Oseenska Rummet Å73121

Modern techniques to evaluate Feynman integrals
Speaker: Alessandro Georgoudis
Papers: – https://arxiv.org/abs/1304.1806, by Johannes M. Henn
              – https://arxiv.org/abs/1506.07243, by Erik Panzer

Date: 23 March 2018, 1.30-3.00 pm

Location: Oseenska Rummet Å73121

Basics of Generalized Unitarity
Speaker: Gustav Mogull
Papers: – https://arxiv.org/abs/1308.1697, by Henriette Elvang and Yu-tin Huang
              – https://arxiv.org/abs/1103.1869, by Zvi Bern and Yu-tin Huang

Date: 16 March 2018, 1.30-3.00 pm

Location: Oseenska Rummet Å73121

Ambitwistor strings and the scattering equations / Universality in string interactions
Speaker: Thales Azevedo
Papers: – https://arxiv.org/abs/1311.2564, by Lionel Mason and David Skinner
              – https://arxiv.org/abs/1602.01674, by Yu-tin Huang, Oliver Schlotterer and Congkao Wen

Date: 9 March 2018, 1.30-3.00 pm

Location: Oseenska Rummet Å73121

Tales of 1001 Gluons / Scattering Amplitudes
Speaker: Fei Teng
Papers: – https://arxiv.org/abs/1610.05318, by Stefan Weinzierl
              – https://arxiv.org/abs/1308.1697, by Henriette Elvang and Yu-tin Huang

Date: 2 March 2018, 1.30-3.00 pm

Location: Oseenska Rummet Å73121

The curious case of AdS₂
Speaker: Souvik Banerjee
Papers: – https://arxiv.org/abs/1402.6334, by Ahmed Almheiri and Joseph Polchinski
              – https://arxiv.org/abs/1606.01857, by Juan Maldacena, Douglas Stanford and Zhenbin Yang

Date: 23 February 2018, 1.30-3.00 pm

Location: Oseenska Rummet Å73121

Double-Trace flows and the Swampland / Non-supersymmetric AdS and the Swampland
Speakers: Tobias Hansen and Marjorie Schillo
Papers: – https://arxiv.org/abs/1709.09159, by Simone Giombi and Eric Perlmutter
              – https://arxiv.org/abs/1610.01533, by Hirosi Ooguri and Cumrun Vafa

Date: 9 February 2018, 1.30-3.00 pm

Location: Room Å3419

The String Landscape, the Swampland, and the Missing Corner
Speaker: Giuseppe Dibitetto
Paper: – https://arxiv.org/abs/1711.00864, by T. Daniel Brennan, Federico Carta and Cumrun Vafa

Date: 2 February 2018, 1.30-3.00 pm

Location: Room Å62416

Topological classification of nodal electronic band structures based on space group symmetries (towards the homotopy classification of vector bundles with crystalline symmetries)
Speaker: Adrien Bouhon

Date: 26 January 2018, 1.30-3.00 pm

Location: Room Å3419
Abstract: I would like to first give the motivation from electronic band theory. This is the framework for (non-interacting) topological insulators and topological semimetals. Then I would review my heuristic approach on the topological classification of band structures which combines space group representation theory with the algebraic computation of Wilson loops. The idea is to use the Wilson loops as indicators of the different topological sectors. Then I would like to conclude with some conceptual questions that naturally arise from this heuristic approach and for which I don't have answers yet.

Analytic Conformal Bootstrap: A Spinning Example
Speaker: Emtinan Elkhidir
Papers: – https://arxiv.org/abs/1212.3616, by A. L. Fitzpatrick, J. Kaplan, D. Poland and D. Simmons-Duffin
               – https://arxiv.org/abs/1212.4103, by Z. Komargodski and A. Zhiboedov
               – https://arxiv.org/abs/1712.01554, by E. Elkhidir and D. Karateev

Date: 15 December 2017, 11.00 am-12.30 pm

Location: Oseenska Rummet Å73121

Particle-Vortex Duality from 3d Bosonization
Speaker: Anastasios Gorantis
Paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/1606.01893, by Andreas Karch and David Tong

Date: 8 December 2017, 1.30-3.00 pm

Location: Oseenska Rummet Å73121

Conformal anomalies in boundary CFTs
Speaker: Vladimir Procházka
Papers: – https://arxiv.org/abs/1509.02160, by Kristan Jensen and Andy O'Bannon
              – https://arxiv.org/abs/1707.06224, by Christopher P. Herzog and Kuo-Wei Huang
              – https://arxiv.org/abs/1709.07431, by Christopher Herzog, Kuo-Wei Huang, Kristan Jensen

Date: 1 December 2017, 1.30-3.00 pm

Location: Oseenska Rummet Å73121

A one dimensional theory for Higgs branch operators
Speaker: Antonio Pittelli
Paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/1610.00740, by M. Dedushenko, S. Pufu, and R. Yacoby

Date: 24 November 2017, 1.30-3.00 pm

Location: Oseenska Rummet Å73121

A Quantum Deformation of the Virasoro Algebra
Speaker: Rebecca Lodin
Papers: – https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/9503043, by H. Awata, Y. Matsuo, S. Odake and J. Shiraishi
              – https://arxiv.org/abs/q-alg/9507034v5, by J. Shiraishi, H. Kubo, H. Awata and S. Odake
              – https://arxiv.org/abs/1605.07029, by A. Nedelin, F. Nieri and M. Zabzine

Date: 17 November 2017, 1.30-3.00 pm

Location: Oseenska Rummet Å73121

Bounds for OPE coefficients on the Regge trajectory
Speaker: Tobias Hansen
Paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/1707.07689, by M. S. Costa, T. Hansen and J. Penedones

Date: 14 November 2017, 1.30-3.00 pm

Location: Oseenska Rummet Å73121

Twisted cohomology, intersection number and scattering amplitudes
Speaker: Gang Chen
Papers: – https://arxiv.org/abs/1706.08527, by Sebastian Mizera
              – https://arxiv.org/abs/1709.08503, by Gang Chen and Tianheng Wang
              – https://arxiv.org/abs/1711.00469, by Sebastian Mizera​
              – https://arxiv.org/abs/math/0208097, by Katsuhisa Mimachi and Masaaki Yoshida

Date: 10 November 2017, 1.30-3.00 pm

Location: Oseenska Rummet Å73121

Two-Loop Fundamental Color-Kinematics Duality
Speaker: Gustav Mogull
Paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/1706.09381, by Henrik Johansson, Gregor Kälin and Gustav Mogull

Date: 27 October 2017, 1.30-3.00 pm

Location: Oseenska Rummet Å73121

Classifying rank-1 4d N=2 SCFTs by Seiberg-Witten geometry
Speaker: Yongchao Lu
Papers: – https://arxiv.org/abs/1505.04814, by P. Argyres, M. Lotito, Y. Lü and M. Martone
              – https://arxiv.org/abs/1601.00011, by P. Argyres, M. Lotito, Y. Lü and M. Martone
              – https://arxiv.org/abs/1609.04404, by P. Argyres, M. Lotito, Y. Lü and M. Martone​
              – https://arxiv.org/abs/1704.05110, by P. Argyres, Y. Lü and M. Martone

Date: – 20 October 2017, 1.30-3.00 pm [Part I]
          – 31 October 2017, 1.30-3.00 pm [Part II]

Location: Oseenska Rummet Å73121

Flux cascades, super-Planckian field excursions, and inflation
Speaker: Marjorie Schillo
Paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/1611.07037, by Fridrik Freyr Gautason, Marjorie Schillo and Thomas Van Riet

Date: 13 October 2017, 1.30-3.00 pm

Location: Oseenska Rummet Å73121

Local tree level BCJ numerators for all multiplicity
Speaker: Fei Teng
Papers: – https://arxiv.org/abs/1708.04514, by Yi-Jian Du, Bo Feng, and Fei Teng
              – https://arxiv.org/abs/1703.05717, by Yi-Jian Du and Fei Teng
              – https://arxiv.org/abs/1703.01269, by Fei Teng and Bo Feng

Date: 6 October 2017, 1.30-3.00 pm

Location: Oseenska Rummet Å73121

Black holes as bubbles of AdS
Speaker: Suvendu Giri
Paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/1705.10172, by U. H. Danielsson, G. Dibitetto and S. Giri

Date: 20 June 2017, 10.00-11.00 am

Location: Oseenska Rummet Å73121

The second law of thermodynamics from symmetry and unitarity
Speaker: Anastasios Gorantis

Paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/1612.07705, by Paolo Glorioso and Hong Liu
Date: 12 May 2017, 1.30-3.00 pm

Location: Oseenska Rummet Å73121

New Kaluza-Klein Instantons and Decay of AdS Vacua
Speaker: Sergio Vargas Avila
Paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/1703.03105 by Hirosi Ooguri and Lev Spodyneiko

Date: 5 May 2017, 1.30-3.00 pm

Location: Oseenska Rummet Å73121

Finiteness of correlation functions and conformal anomalies
Speaker: Vladimir Prochazka

Paper: – https://arxiv.org/abs/1611.01367, by Vladimir Prochazka and Roman Zwicky
            – https://arxiv.org/abs/1703.01239, by Vladimir Prochazka and Roman Zwicky
Abstract: We look at logarithmically divergent contact terms of correlators of composite operators in a generic QFT. Utilizing RG techniques, the UV behaviour of these contact terms is analysed and criteria for their UV finiteness are derived. As a particular case it is shown that the 2-point function of energy-momentum tensor trace is finite. Consequences thereof are explored in the context of conformal anomalies. It is shown that the finiteness implies existence of a scheme, where the R² anomaly vanishes along the RG flow. As another consequence we provide a manifestly positive, scheme and flow independent expression for the difference between the UV and IR value of the ☐R anomaly.
Date: 28 April 2017, 1.30-3.00 pm

Location: Oseenska Rummet Å73121

Infinite Chiral Symmetry in Four Dimensions
Speaker: Yiwen Pan
Paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/1312.5344, by Christopher Beem, Madalena Lemos, Pedro Liendo, Wolfger Peelaers, Leonardo Rastelli and Balt C. van Rees
Date: 21 April 2017, 1.30-3.00 pm

Location: Oseenska Rummet Å73121

Positive Geometries and Canonical Forms
Speaker: Gregor Kälin
Paper: – https://arxiv.org/abs/1703.04541, by Nima Arkani-Hamed, Yuntao Bai and Thomas Lam 
            – https://arxiv.org/abs/1212.5605, by Nima Arkani-Hamed, Jacob L. Bourjaily, Freddy Cachazo, Alexander B. Goncharov, Alexander Postnikov and Jaroslav Trnka

Date: 7 April 2017, 1.30-3.00 pm

Location: Oseenska Rummet Å73121

Analytic Representations of Yang-Mills Amplitudes

Speaker: Oluf Engelund
Paper: – https://arxiv.org/abs/1506.06137, by Christian Baadsgaard, N. E. J. Bjerrum-Bohr, Jacob L. Bourjaily and Poul H. Damgaard
            – https://arxiv.org/abs/1605.06501, by N. E. J. Bjerrum-Bohr, Jacob L. Bourjaily, Poul H. Damgaard and Bo Feng

Date: 31 March 2017, 1.30-3.00 pm

Location: Oseenska Rummet Å73121

On the null origin of the ambitwistor string
Speaker: Thales Azevedo

Paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/1606.05636, by Eduardo Casali and Piotr Tourkine

Date: 10 March 2017, 1.30-3.00 pm

Location: Oseenska Rummet Å73121

The S-matrix Bootstrap II: Two Dimensional Amplitudes
Speaker: Raul Pereira
Paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/1607.06110, by Miguel F. Paulos, Joao Penedones, Jonathan Toledo, Balt C. van Rees and Pedro Vieira

Date: 3 March 2017, 1.30-3.00 pm

Location: Oseenska Rummet Å73121

M-theory from the Superpoint
Speaker: Jacob Winding
Paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/1702.01774, by John Huerta and Urs Schreiber

Date: 17 February 2017, 1.30-3.00 pm

Location: Oseenska Rummet Å73121

Localization of supersymmetric field theories on non-compact hyperbolic three-manifolds
Speaker: Konstantina Polydorou

Paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/1609.08071, by Benjamin Assel, Dario Martelli, Sameer Murthy, and Daisuke Yokoyama
Date: 10 February 2017, 1.30-3.00 pm

Location: Oseenska Rummet Å73121

The Black Hole Interior in AdS/CFT and the Information Paradox
Speaker: Souvik Banerjee
Paper: – https://arxiv.org/abs/1310.6334, by Kyriakos Papadodimas and Suvrat Raju
            – https://arxiv.org/abs/1603.02812, by Souvik Banerjee, Jan-Willem Bryan,
Kyriakos Papadodimas and Suvrat Raju

Date: 16 December 2016, 1.30-3.00 pm
Location: Oseenska Rummet Å73121

Lectures on Gravity and Entanglement

Speaker: Achilleas Passias

Paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/1609.00026v1, by Mark Van Raamsdonk
Date: 9 December 2016, 1.30-3.00 pm

Location: Oseenska Rummet Å73121

Non-supersymmetric AdS and the Swampland

Speaker: Giuseppe Dibitetto

Paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/1610.01533, by Hirosi Ooguri and Cumrun Vafa

Date: 2 December 2016, 1.30-3.00 pm

Location: Oseenska Rummet Å73121

Integrable lattice models from four-dimensional field theories

Speaker: Luigi Tizzano
Paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/1308.0370, by Kevin J. Costello
Date: 28 October 2016, 1.30-3.00 pm

Location: Oseenska Rummet Å73121

Lectures on Yangian Symmetry
Speaker: Alessandro Georgoudis

Paper: http://arxiv.org/abs/1606.02947, by Florian Loebbert

Date: 21 October 2016, 1.30-3.00 pm

Location: Oseenska Rummet Å73121

Crossing symmetry and Higher spin towers
Speaker: Thales Azevedo
Paper: http://arxiv.org/abs/1603.05150, Luis F. Alday and Agnese Bissi

Date: 17 June 2016, 1.30-3.00 pm

The (2,0) superconformal bootstrap
Speaker: Luigi Tizzano

Paper: http://arxiv.org/abs/1507.05637, by C. Beem, M. Lemos, L. Rastelli and B. van Rees

Date: 10 June 2016, 1.30-3.00 pm

An Algebraic Approach to the Analytic Bootstrap
Speaker: Pietro Longhi
Paper: http://arxiv.org/abs/1510.08091, by Luis F. Alday and Alexander Zhiboedov
Date: 7 June 2016, 1.30-3.00 pm

Conformal Bootstrap With Slightly Broken Higher Spin Symmetry
Speaker: Fabrizio Nieri
Paper: http://arxiv.org/abs/1506.04659, by Luis Alday and Alexander Zhiboedov

Date: 1 June 2016, 1.30-3.00 pm

The Analytic Bootstrap and AdS Superhorizon Locality
Speaker: Thales Azevedo

Paper: http://arxiv.org/abs/1212.3616, by A. Fitzpatrick, J. Kaplan, D. Poland, D. Simmons-Duffin
Date: 20 May 2016, 1.30-3.00 pm

Bounding scalar operator dimensions in 4D CFT

Speaker: Jacob Winding

Paper: http://arxiv.org/abs/0807.0004, by R. Rattazzi, V. Rychkov, E. Toni, A. Vichi
Date: 13 May 2016, 1.30-3.00 pm

EPFL Lectures on Conformal Field Theory in D≥3 Dimensions
Speaker: Raul Pereira

Paper: http://arxiv.org/abs/1601.05000, by Slava Rychkov
Date: 29 April 2016, 1.30-3.00 pm

Inflation in AdS/CFT
Speaker: Giuseppe Dibitetto
Paper: http://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0510046, by B. Freivogel, V. Hubeny, A. Maloney, R. Myers, M. Rangamani, S. Shenker

Date: 22 April 2016, 1.30-3.00 pm

Exact Kähler Potential from Gauge Theory and Mirror Symmetry
Speaker: Yiwen Pan

Paper: http://arxiv.org/abs/1210.6022, by Jaume Gomis and Sungjay Lee
Date: 1 April 2016, 1.30-3.00 pm

Black holes and the double copy
Speaker: Gregor Kälin

Paper: http://arxiv.org/abs/1410.0239, by Ricardo Monteiro, Donal O'Connell, Chris D. White

Date: 11 March 2016, 1.30-3.00 pm

Superintegrability of d-dimensional Conformal Blocks

Speaker: Fabrizio Nieri
Paper: http://arxiv.org/abs/1602.01858, by Mikhail Isachenkov and Volker Schomerus
Date: 4 March 2016, 1.30-3.00 pm

Grassmann Matrix Quantum Mechanics
Speaker: Pietro Longhi
Paper: http://arxiv.org/abs/1512.03803, by Dionysios Anninos, Frederik Denef and Ruben Monten

Date: 19 February 2016, 1.30-3.00 pm

Relative Entropy and Proximity of Quantum Field Theories

Speaker: Luigi Tizzano
Paper: http://arxiv.org/abs/1410.6809, by Vijay Balasubramanian, Jonathan Heckman, Alexander Maloney
Date: 12 February 2016, 1.30-3.00 pm

Integrability and unitarity
Speaker: Oluf Engelund
Paper: http://arxiv.org/abs/1502.06627, by Andreas Brandhuber, Brenda Penante, Gabriele Travaglini and Donovan Young

Date: 11 December 2015, 11.00 am-12.00

Origin of the Pure Spinor and Green-Schwarz Formalisms
Speaker: Thales Azevedo
Paper: http://arxiv.org/abs/1503.03080, by Nathan Berkovits
Date: 4 December 2015, 1.30-3.00 pm

On the global symmetries of 6D superconformal field theories
Speaker: Giuseppe Dibitetto

Paper: http://arxiv.org/abs/1510.08056, by Marco Bertolini, Peter Merkx and David Morrison

Date: 27 November 2015, 1.30-3.00 pm

Structure Constants and Integrable Bootstrap in Planar N=4 SYM Theory
Speaker: Raul Pereira

Paper: http://arxiv.org/abs/1505.06745, by Benjamin Basso, Pedro Vieira and Shota Komatsu

Date: 20 November 2015, 1.30-3.00 pm

The Epsilon-Expansion from Conformal Field Theory
Speaker: Jacob Winding

Paper: http://arxiv.org/abs/1505.00963, by Slava Rychkov and Zhong Ming Tan
Date: 13 November 2015, 1.30-3.00 pm

Anomalies, Conformal Manifolds, and Spheres
Speaker: Noppadol Mekareeya
Paper: http://arxiv.org/abs/1509.08511, by Gomis, Komargodski, Hsin, Schwimmer, Seiberg and Theisen
Date: 5 November 2015, 1.30-3.00 pm

Looking for a bulk point
Speaker: Joseph Minahan

Paper: http://arxiv.org/abs/1509.03612, by Juan Maldacena, David Simmons-Duffin and Alexander Zhiboedov

Date: 2 October 2015, 1.30-3.00 pm

Modern Methods in Amplitudes III
Speaker: Oluf Engelund
Date: 6 March 2015, 11.00-12.00pm

Modern Methods in Amplitudes II
Speaker: Oluf Engelund
Date: 26 February 2015, 2.15-3.15pm

Modern Methods in Amplitudes
Speaker: Oluf Engelund
Date: 17 February 2015, 3.15-4.15pm

Some coarse grained models in protein folding simulation
Speaker: Xubiao Peng
Date: 17 December 2014, 1.45-2.45 pm

Singularities and Gauge Theories IV: 6d theories
Speaker: Luigi Tizzano
Date: 5 December 2014, 11.00 am-12.00

Singularities and Gauge Theories III
Speaker: Luigi Tizzano
Date: 27 November 2014, 1.45-2.45 pm

Singularities and Gauge Theories II
Speaker: Luigi Tizzano
Date: 30 October 2014, 1.45-2.45 pm

Singularities and Gauge Theories I
Speaker: Luigi Tizzano
Date: 24 October 2014, 1.45-2.45 pm

Flux compactifications: A toy model and some restrictions III
Speaker: Johan Blåbäck
Notes: A toy model and some restrictions
Date: 5 June 2014, 2.15-3.15 pm

Flux compactifications: A toy model and some restrictions II
Speaker: Johan Blåbäck
Notes: A toy model and some restrictions
Date: 28 May 2014, 10.30-11.30 am

Flux compactifications: A toy model and some restrictions
Speaker: Johan Blåbäck
Notes: A toy model and some restrictions
Date: 15 May 2014, 3.15-4.15 pm

Seiberg-Witten Theory II
Speaker: Jacob Winding
Date: 8 May 2014, 2.15-3.15 pm

Seiberg-Witten Theory
Speaker: Jacob Winding
Date: 28 April 2014, 2.15-3.15 pm

Matrix Models IV: Wilson Loops
Speaker: Anton Nedelin
Notes: Matrix Models IV: Wilson Loops
Date: 13 December 2013, 1.15-2.15 pm

Matrix Models III: Technique
Speaker: Anton Nedelin
Notes: Matrix Models III: Technique
Date: 5 December 2013, 10.15-11.15 pm

Matrix Models II: Applications
Speaker: Anton Nedelin
Notes: Matrix Models II: Applications
Date: 28 November 2013, 3.15-4.15 pm

Matrix Models: Introduction
Speaker: Anton Nedelin
Notes: Matrix Models: Introduction
Date: 22 November 2013, 1.15-2.15 pm

Extended Gauged Supergravities III
Speaker: Giuseppe Dibitetto
Notes: Extended Gauged Supergravities III
Date: 14 November 2013, 3.15-4.15 pm

Extended Gauged Supergravities II: Relevant examples in four dimensions
Speaker: Giuseppe Dibitetto
Notes: Extended Gauged Supergravities II: Relevant examples in four dimensions
Date: 31 October 2013, 3.15-4.15 pm

Extended Gauged Supergravities
Speaker: Giuseppe Dibitetto
Notes: Extended Gauged Supergravities
Date: 23 October 2013, 3.15-4.15 pm

Mathai-Quillen Formalism, Topological Field Theory and Localization
Speaker: Luigi Tizzano
Date: 4 June 2013, 10.30 am-12.00

Integrability in Super-Yang-Mills theory II
Speaker: Thomas Klose
Notes: Integrability in Super-Yang-Mills theory II
Date: 25 April 2013, 10.30 am-12.00

Integrability in Super-Yang-Mills theory
Speaker: Thomas Klose
Notes: Integrability in Super-Yang-Mills theory
Date: 17 April 2013, 10.30 am-12.30 pm

Introduction to Generalised Complex Geometry and its applications to flux compactifications II
Speaker: Giuseppe Dibitetto
Notes: Introduction to Generalised Complex Geometry and its applications to flux compactifications II
Date: 11 March 2013, 10.30-11.30 am

Introduction to Generalised Complex Geometry and its applications to flux compactifications
Speaker: Giuseppe Dibitetto
Notes: Introduction to Generalised Complex Geometry and its applications to flux compactifications
Date: 27 February 2013, 10.30-11.30 am