NBMPS 25½

9:00-9:30

Sanjaye Ramgoolam (Queen Mary, London)

Feynman diagrams in matrix models and the absolute Galois group of rationals

I describe how the Feynman diagram calculation of one-Matrix Model correlators can be expressed in terms of the counting of equivalence classes of triples of permutations, which are related to counting of holomorphic maps from string worldsheets defined over the closure of rationals and to Dessins d'Enfants. The absolute Galois group organizes the Feynman diagrams into orbits. Correlators of multi-matrix models are related to edge colorings of the Dessins, which provide a useful tool to describe known Galois invariants and to define new ones.

9:30-10:00

Amihay Hanany (Imperial College, London)

Counting abelian orbifolds

Brane Tilings give a large class of SCFT's in 3+1 and 2+1 dimensions. In this talk I will discuss several attempts to classify all such models. Special attention will be devoted to the class of Abelian orbifolds of ℂ³ and of ℂ⁴. Statistical properties of these models can be derived using some techniques in crystallography and in number theory.

10:00-10:30

James Lucietti (Imperial College, London)

Extremal black holes

The study of black hole solutions to higher dimensional versions of Einstein's equations is motivated by string theory and more recently by the gauge/gravity correspondence. It turns out that in higher dimensions there is a much richer set of possible black holes as compared to the classic case of four space-time dimensions. I will give a brief overview of our current (lack of) knowledge in this area, with particular emphasis on the black hole uniqueness/classification problem. I will then discuss recent progress on the classification of extremal black holes -- these are a class of black holes of special importance in string theory and the gauge/gravity correspondence.

10:30-11:00

Jan Gutowski (King's College, London)

Classification of supersymmetric black holes

Considerable advances have been made in the analysis of supersymmetric solutions associated with string theory. New techniques in spinorial geometry, developed with G. Papadopoulos and U. Gran, can be applied to the classification of supersymmetric black hole near-horizon geometries in higher dimensional supergravity. Such solutions are of particular interest, as black hole uniqueness theorems in four dimensions do not extend to higher dimensions. I will describe, based on the paper arXiv:1001.2460 [hep-th], how these techniques can be used to classify all supersymmetric black hole near-horizon geometries in heterotic supergravity, and some new solutions with novel geometries will be presented.

15:00-15:30

Carlos Núñez (Swansea)

Aspects of gauge-strings duality

I will summarise some recent progress in the duality between gauge fields and strings. A connection between previously known string backgrounds will be presented, together with new backgrounds and its field theory duals.

15:30-16:00

Chris Hull (Imperial College, London)

Duality and geometry

Generalised geometry and double geometry are discussed and compared, and their applications to string theory and T-duality are considered.

16:30-17:00

Paul Heslop (Durham)

Amplitudes and Wilson loops in maximally supersymmetric Yang-Mills

17:00-17:30

Nick Dorey (DAMTP, Cambridge)

Integrability and gauge-string duality

I will review the role of integrability in recent progress in understanding string theory on Anti-de Sitter spaces and its duality to planar gauge theory.

Practical Information

If you wish to attend the meeting, or for further questions, please email Richard Szabo. Limited funds are available to help with travel expenses of participants with no other source of funding. We hope that this will encourage postgraduate students and postdocs to attend the meeting. Please book early to take advantage of the cheaper train fares!

North British Mathematical Physics Seminar 25½

The Mathematics of String Theory

Practical Information

Sponsors