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Pacific Northwest Particle Theory Seminar

The Pacific Northwest Particle Theory Seminar is a one-day regional meeting whose goal is to bring together high energy physicists from UBC, UVic, and the University of Washington to get together for a day, hear some talks, and discuss physics. 

The third meeting will be held at the University of Washington at:

Date: April 30, 2024.

Location: Physics-Astronomy Building (PAB) C520.

(See map below)

Schedule:

0900 - 0930: Welcome, coffee.

0930 - 1030: Hong Liu (MIT), Emergence of space and time in holography.

Abstract: In the context of holographic duality, a higher-dimensional quantum gravity system is conjectured to be equivalent to a lower-dimensional conformal field theory (CFT) with a large number of degrees of freedom. This talk will introduce a framework that uses the CFT to elucidate how geometric notions inherent to the gravity system, such as spacetime subregions, various choices of time, causal structure, and spacetime connectivity, emerge in the semi-classical limit.

1030 - 1100: Break.

1100 - 1140: Moshe Rozali (UBC), Randomness in conformal field theories.

Abstract: Randomness or genericity in quantum mechanics is manifested in correlations between energy levels. We review an ongoing attempt to quantify randomness in conformal field theories, which at large central charge can have random aspects despite the presence of large symmetry, primarily modular invariance. We show that  the gravity wormhole amplitude emerges as a minimal expression which is both quantum chaotic and modular invariant.

1140 - 1220: Natalie Paquette (UW), Associativity is Enough.

Abstract: I will report on work to appear shortly with my student, Victor Fernandez. The celestial chiral algebras of “twistorial” theories, 4d theories with local holomorphic lifts to twistor space, are associative even at the quantum level. In this work, we use elementary considerations, such as symmetries and associativity, to find closed-form expressions for all coefficients (i.e., at arbitrary loop order) of the OPEs for the celestial chiral algebras associated to twistorial theories, in particular self-dual Yang-Mills theory coupled to special choices of matter; similar considerations apply also for self-dual general relativity coupled to a special matter sector. This work constitutes a preliminary step in a program proposed by Costello and myself called the chiral algebra bootstrap, in which correlation functions for such chiral algebras can be used to compute higher loop form factors in non-supersymmetric 4d quantum field theories.

1220 - 1340: Lunch.

1340 - 1410: Eric Mefford (UVic), Linear hydrodynamical stability and the laws of thermodynamics.

Abstract: After sufficiently long times, most thermal interacting systems will eventually settle into a state of thermodynamic equilibrium. Hydrodynamics is a universal framework that describes such systems, organizing the dynamics of conserved charges in terms of a gradient expansion of slowly varying fluxes that are constrained to obey local versions of the first and second laws of thermodynamics. Intuitively, if the equilibrium state is stable, then collective hydrodynamic excitations should decay exponentially with time. I will discuss recent work showing that, within the linearized regime, the local laws of thermodynamics guarantee that this will be the case. In fact, the converse is true as well—if there is a linear instability in the system, then there must be a thermodynamic instability as well. I will end with a few examples in systems with spontaneously broken global symmetries where long-known “Landau instabilities” are reframed as thermodynamic instabilities.

1410 - 1440: Niklas Garner (UW), Level-rank duality and 3d mirror symmetry.

Abstract: Dualities of quantum field theories (QFTs) are a cornerstone of modern theoretical physics. In this talk, I will describe three-dimensional QFTs where two familiar dualities converge: three-dimensional mirror symmetry and level-rank duality. This is based on joint work with Thomas Creutzig and Heeyeon Kim.

1440 - 1500: Break.

1500 - 1600: UW Particle Theory Seminar: Herman Verlinde (Princeton), Double Scaled SYK and de Sitter Holography.

Abstract: In this talk I will describe the correspondence between the SYK model in the double scaling and infinite temperature limit and de Sitter gravity in 2 and 3 dimensions. The dictionary involves a precise match between the chord rules that govern the SYK correlation functions and the braid interactions between line operators in 3D de Sitter gravity. I'll discuss how these results connect with the more standard dS/CFT correspondence.

1600 - 1620: Break.

1620 - 1735: Student Talks.

   William Harvey (UVic).

   Ryan Lanzetta (UW).

   Jonah Librande (UW).

   Xiaoyi Shi (UW).

   Kate Taylor (UVic).

The Physics-Astronomy Building is located at

For a map of the campus, including the location of the PAB, .

For those requiring lodging in Seattle there are many options available.The University Inn and Watertown Hotel (both under Staypineapple) provide UW guests participating in the meeting with a preferred rate. Reservations can be made online using the links:

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