Applied Newton-Cartan geometry: March 6-10, 2017

Organized by: Eric Bergshoeff, Gary Gibbons, Rob Leigh, Djordje Minic, and Dam Thanh Son.

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Recent studies of non-AdS holography involving Lifshitz spacetimes have led to a boundary conformal field theory coupled to an extension of Newton-Cartan geometry that includes twistless torsion. At the same time, effective field theories in Newton-Cartan backgrounds have been studied and used in the description of a variety of non-relativistic systems such as the fractional quantum Hall effect, chiral superfluids, and simple fluids. Besides the holographic and effective field theory applications, there have been many other recent applications of Newton-Cartan geometry. For instance, it has been shown that Hořava-Lifshitz gravity can be described using dynamical Newton-Cartan geometry. Furthermore, Newton-Cartan geometry obeys a duality with its ultra-relativistic cousin, Carroll geometry. A conformal extension of this Carroll geometry is related to the BMS symmetry of flat-space holography. Finally, studying supersymmetric field theories on arbitrary Newton–Cartan backgrounds enables one to apply powerful localization techniques to extract exact results for such field theories.

These recent applications of Newton-Cartan geometry make it clear that the time has come to organize an interdisciplinary workshop on this topic which will enable participants from different backgrounds (condensed matter physics, mathematics, statistical physics and string theory) to interact and exchange new ideas.