SCIENTIFIC PROGRAMS AND ACTIVITIES

March 28, 2024

String Theory Seminars

Physics/Mathematics/CITA
Amanda W. Peet, Physics, University of Toronto

Fall Semester, academic year 2000-2001


Overview

Superstring/M ("string") theory is the most promising candidate for a unified quantum theory of the gravitational, electroweak, and strong interactions. It illuminates the physics of ultra-short distance and ultra-high energy, and provides ways of building models of our low-energy world. There has been enormous progress in the field since late 1994. One result which caught the attention of many researchers was the 1996 Strominger-Vafa computation of the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy of certain black holes using stringy "D-brane" techniques. Since then, a more general understanding of black hole entropy in string theory has been obtained with the aid of the "Black Hole Correspondence Principle". Further exciting new results, such as the "Gravity/Gauge Correspondences", have been obtained by studying aspects of black holes.

This seminar on string theory and related topics is intended to be interesting to researchers from Physics, Mathematics, and CITA. Faculty, postdocs, and graduate students are all welcome. Amanda W. Peet, new Assistant Professor of Physics, will kick off the seminar with a series of informal lectures on "Black Holes and their Entropy in String Theory". Questions from researchers from various backgrounds will be encouraged; the number of talks and the level of technicality will depend on interest. A basic level of familiarity with General Relativity and Quantum Field Theory is recommended, but not required. Lecture notes from Peet's TASI lectures on the same subject, geared for a High Energy Theoretical Physics PhD student audience, are available here.

Schedule

The seminars will be held on the following Thursdays:

October 12, 12:00-13:00 (at the Fields Institute)
October 19, 12:00-13:00 (MP 1115, 11th floor of Burton Tower, McLennan Physical Laboratories (MP) 255 Huron Street)
October 26, 12:00-13:00 (at the Fields Institute)
November 2, 12:00-13:00 (at the Fields Institute)
November 9, 12:00-13:00 (at the Fields Institute)
November 16, 12:00-13:00 (at the Fields Institute)
November 23, 12:00-13:00 (at the Fields Institute)
November 30, 12:00-13:00 (at the Fields Institute)