Sphere Packing and the Conformal Bootstrap: December 14-18, 2020

Workshop Schedule LIVE STREAM THE LECTURES HERE

Organized by Henry Cohn, Thomas Hartman, Dalimil Mazac, Leonardo Rastelli and Maryna Viazovska

This workshop will assemble a group of mathematicians and physicists with diverse expertise to explore a new intriguing connection between discrete geometry and quantum field theory. This connection arises from a recent realization that certain powerful linear programming bounds on sphere packings have a natural interpretation in the language of the conformal bootstrap, and thereby are closely related to novel constraints on theories of quantum gravity.

This workshop will be held via Zoom and streamed live on YouTube for the general public.

For mathematicians interested in learning more about the conformal bootstrap:
– https://arxiv.org/pdf/1602.07982.pdf : lecture notes covering the physical foundations, mathematical formulation and applications of the conformal bootstrap
– https://arxiv.org/pdf/2007.14315.pdf : review talk explaining the bootstrap axioms aimed at mathematicians- https://arxiv.org/pdf/1905.01319.pdf : Section 2 gives a review of the modular bootstrap and Section 4 explains its connection to sphere packing bounds