Workshop: Random Geometry in Math and Physics: April 13-17, 2026

Participant ListView VideosDanfords Printable schedulePrintable workshop schedule

Organizers:
● Timothy Budd (Radboud University)
● Frank Ferrari (Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and International Solvay Institutes)
● Scott Sheffield (MIT)
● Herman Verlinde (Princeton University)
● Yilin Wang (IHES / ETH Zürich)
● Zhenbin Yang (Tsinghua University)

The study of low dimensional models for quantum gravity, in particular Liouville and JT gravity, is at the heart of a very rich interaction between physics and mathematics. On the physics side, the aim is to address profound questions in 2d and 3d quantum gravity, in relation with the information paradox, quantum black holes and holography. On the mathematics side, the probabilistic and combinatorial interpretations of the models have opened new avenues of research at the interface with other mathematical research areas, including complex analysis, Teichmüller theory, and the study of conformally invariant processes in statistical physics. The aim of the program is to boost this interplay by bringing together physicists and mathematicians around the theme of random geometry. Some key problems of interest will be the construction of JT theory at finite cut-off, the study of applications in supersymmetric set-ups, the study of 3d random manifolds in relation with the AdS_3/CFT_2 correspondence, probabilistic aspects of SLE in relation with the Kähler geometry of the universal Teichmüller space, etc.

This workshop is associated with the program: Random Geometry in Math and Physics: March 23-May 1, 2026

Talk Schedule


Time Title Speaker Location
8:30am Workshop: Breakfast N/A Simons Center Cafe
9:30am Survey about random hyperbolic surfaces Nicolas Curien SCGP 102
10:30am Coffee Break N/A SCGP Cafe
11:00am JT Gravity on Finite Geometries: finite cut-off holography, self-overlapping loops and the JT CFT Frank Ferrari SCGP 102
12:00pm Lunch N/A SCGP Cafe
1:00pm It from ETH: Multi-interval Entanglement and Replica Wormholes from Large-cBCFT Ensemble Hao Geng SCGP 102
2:30pm Directed distances in random planar maps Ewain Gwynne SCGP 102
3:30pm Tea Time N/A SCGP Cafe
4:00pm Quantized Chaotic Dynamics on High-dimensional Hyperbolic Manifolds and JT gravity Klaus Richter SCGP 102
5:15pm Danfords Shuttle 1 6:00 PM Danfords Shuttle 2

Time Title Speaker Location
8:30am Workshop: Breakfast N/A Simons Center Cafe
9:30am SLE, Loewner energy, and renormalized volume Yilin Wang SCGP 102
10:30am Coffee Break N/A SCGP Cafe
11:00am Tensor models, triangulations, and ensembles of BCFTs Daniel Jafferis SCGP 102
12:00pm Group Photo N/A SCGP Cafe
12:10pm Lunch N/A SCGP Cafe
2:30pm The slice decomposition of planar maps Jérémie Bouttier SCGP 102
3:30pm Tea Time N/A SCGP Cafe
4:00pm Positivity constraints for the gravitational path integral Cynthia Yan SCGP 102
5:15pm Danfords Shuttle 1 6:00 PM Danfords Shuttle 2

Time Title Speaker Location
8:30am Workshop: Breakfast N/A Simons Center Cafe
9:30am Complex Liouville theory and SYK holography Herman Verlinde SCGP 102
10:30am Coffee Break N/A SCGP Cafe
11:00am Virasoro coadjoint orbits and hyperbolic metrics Anton Alekseev SCGP 102
12:00pm Lunch N/A SCGP Cafe
1:00pm SLE/CFT : 0/∞ Eveliina Peltola SCGP 102
2:30pm Epstein curves and holography of the Schwarzian action Catherine Wolfram N/A
3:30pm Tea Time N/A SCGP Cafe
4:00pm Signatures of Bulk Topology from the ‘t Hooft Worldsheet Alex Frenkel SCGP 102
5:15pm Danfords Shuttle 1 6:00 PM Danfords Shuttle 2

Time Title Speaker Location
8:30am Workshop: Breakfast N/A Simons Center Cafe
9:30am Random hyperbolic geometry and Schwarzian field theory Timothy Budd SCGP 102
10:30am Coffee Break N/A SCGP Cafe
11:00am Recent developments in minimal string theory Scott Collier SCGP 102
12:00pm Lunch N/A SCGP Cafe
1:00pm Harmonic maps into high-dimensional spheres Antoine Song SCGP 102
2:30pm c=1 strings as a matrix integral Victor Rodriguez N/A
3:30pm Tea Time N/A SCGP Cafe
4:00pm Yang-Mills and the surprising implications of 1+1=2 and 2+2=4 Scott Sheffield SCGP 102
6:00pm Workshop Banquet N/A SCGP Cafe
8:15pm Danfords Shuttle 1 9:00 PM Danfords Shuttle 2

Time Title Speaker Location
8:30am Workshop: Breakfast N/A Simons Center Cafe
9:30am From phase space to Krylov space: complexity and the geometry of chaos Julian Sonner SCGP 102
10:30am Coffee Break N/A SCGP Cafe
11:00am The b-6j Symbol: from Liouville CFT to Virasoro TQFT Xin Sun SCGP 102
12:00pm Lunch N/A SCGP Cafe
1:00pm Finite-cutoff JT gravity and self-avoiding loops Zhenbin Yang SCGP 102
2:30pm The WZW H^3 model, a probabilistic construction Colin Guillarmou N/A
3:30pm Tea Time N/A SCGP Cafe
4:00pm TBA Roland Bauerschmidt SCGP 102
5:15pm Danfords Shuttle 1 6:00 PM Danfords Shuttle 2



This is a group photo of the workshop participants
This is the workshop poster