Homological Methods in Quantum Field Theory: September 29 – October 3, 2014

Application for workshop  is now closed.

Organized by Kevin Costello, Ryan Grady, Owen Gwilliam, and Si Li

Dates: September 29 – October 3, 2014

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The Batalin-Vilkovisky (BV) formalism is a powerful method for constructing quantum field theories, notably gauge and supergravity theories. Recently, the language of derived geometry and homotopical algebra has provided a deeper interpretation of this formalism and further applications. In particular, thanks to the systematic integration of the BV formalism and techniques of renormalization, the last decade has seen a growing collection of examples and computational tools.

The conference will consist of several lecture series and research talks, with a focus on the BV formalism, its interpretation via derived geometry, compatible methods of renormalization, and the construction of factorization algebras from QFTs. Research talks will discuss sigma-models, supersymmetric gauge theories (and their twisted versions), BV theories on manifolds with boundary, and methods for producing topological invariants (e.g., link invariants) by factorization algebra techniques.

All workshop talks will be held in the Simons Center Lecture Hall (Room 102).

The Fall Simons Lectures by Steve Zelditch of Northwestern University will be held in the Simons Center Lecture Hall (Room 102).