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Speaker: Dr. John H. Schwarz
Public Lecture: Tuesday March 25, 6:00pm in the Simons Center Auditorium, Room 103. Wine and Cheese Reception at 5:15pm
Title: “STRING THEORY: PAST, PRESENT, and FUTURE”
Abstract: String theory connects the microscopic quantum world of elementary particles to the large-scale world of gravity and geometry. Physicists believe that it may have the potential to achieve two very ambitious goals: (1) to provide a complete mathematical description of the physical laws that determine the properties of elementary particles and the forces that act on them and (2) to describe the origin and evolution of the universe. Much has been achieved, but string theory is still a work in progress. This talk will give a historical overview of the subject and discuss (without technical details) some of the problems that remain to be overcome.
Dr. Schwarz will also present a technical colloquium for faculty and advanced graduate students on Thursday March 27 at 11:00am in Simons Center room 102
Title: “N=4 Super Yang-Mills Theory on the Coulomb Branch”
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Abstract:
It is conjectured that the world-volume action of a probe D3-brane in an AdS_5 X S^5
background of type IIB superstring theory, with one unit of flux, can be
reinterpreted as the exact effective action for U(2) N =4 super Yang-Mills theory
on the Coulomb branch. An analogous conjecture for ABJM theory
is also presented. The main evidence supporting these conjectures is that
the brane actions have all of the expected symmetries and dualities.
