Physics & Astronomy Colloquium

Speaker: Christoph Uhlemann, University of California, Los Angeles

Title: New perspectives on quantum field theory from string theory

Abstract: Quantum field theory is the established framework for addressing fundamental questions in many areas of physics, ranging from particle and nuclear theory to condensed matter physics and (effective) quantum gravity. Interesting applications, however, often involve scenarios which are challenging for traditional computational methods, e.g. non-trivial states or backgrounds and in particular scenarios where interactions can not be treated perturbatively. Moreover, it has become clear that there are large classes of quantum field theories that do not have a conventional Lagrangian description and are hard to access for traditional methods even in principle. In the talk I will review how string theory provides access to otherwise challenging questions in quantum field theory, and discuss recent progress in the description of intrinsically strongly-coupled non-Lagrangian theories.

Speaker Website: http://cuhlemann.co.nf/