Twenty-Seventh Meeting of the North British Mathematical Physics Seminar

The twenty-seventh meeting of the North British Mathematical Physics Seminar will be held on Thursday 30 September 2010 in Durham, in room CM221 of the Department of Mathematical Sciences. These people have so far said they intend to come.

Programme

11:00-11:30
Coffee (in the Maths Dept, room CM211)
11:30-12:25
Alessandro Torrielli (York)
Integrability and Yangians in supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory and AdS/CFT
We will review integrability and the role of quantum group symmetries and their representations in the spectral problem of supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory, and the relevance for the AdS/CFT conjecture.
12:30-13:45
Lunch
13:45-14:40
Robert Weston (Heriot-Watt)
Defects and Q-operators in the XXZ and sine-Gordon Models
I will present a common algebraic setting for Q-operators and defects in the XXZ and sine-Gordon models and discuss the connection with the work of Bowcock, Corrigan and Zambon.
14:45-15:40
Arjun Bagchi (Edinburgh)
Non-relativistic AdS/CFT through the GCA looking glass
Non-relativistic versions of AdS/CFT have been a popular venue of recent research. In this talk, I look at the version which can be best motivated as the true non-relativistic limit of the conjecture. The relativistic conformal algebra on the boundary is systematically reduced to what we call the Galilean Conformal Algebra by a process of parametric group contraction. This new algebra is surprising in many aspects, the most intriguing of which is the fact that it can be given an infinite lift in any space-time dimensions. This algebra is also important to non-relativistic hydrodynamics. I look at some interesting features of the two dimensional GCA.The bulk dual of the system is proposed as a novel Newton-Cartan like structure of Anti de-Sitter space-time. The GCA is obtained as the asymptotic symmetries of this novel structure. Several other comments on more recent research would also be made.
15:45-16:30
Tea
16:30-16:55
Alex Torres-Gomez (Nottingham)
Gravity-Yang-Mills-Higgs unification from a general Diffeomorphism Invariant Gauge Theory
Our starting point is an action that describes a general diffeomorphism invariant gauge theory for a group G. The Minkowski background then breaks the gauge group by selecting in it a preferred gravitational SU(2) subgroup. We expand the action around this background and find the spectrum of linearized theory to consist of the usual gravitons plus Yang-Mills fields charged under the centralizer of the SU(2) in G. In addition, there is a set of Higgs fields that are charged both under the gravitational and Yang-Mills subgroups.
17:00-17:25
Andrew Ciavarella (Durham)
Boundary Giant Magnons and Giant Gravitons
Among the spinning string solutions that have proved useful in testing the AdS/CFT correspondence are the giant magnons, which when attached to a giant graviton create a boundary giant magnon. We will discuss the boundary giant magnons on R x S^2 from three different perspectives: as string solutions, as their Pohlmeyer reduced versions in sine-Gordon theory and as BIon spikes of a D3-brane giant graviton.

Practical Information

Train information can be obtained here.

For directions to the Department of Mathematical Sciences click here, here or here.

Tea, coffee and biscuits will be provided free of charge. There might be a sandwich lunch for which participants might be charged (depending on funding).

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 email Patrick Dorey in advance if you would like to apply for support and please book early to take advantage of the cheaper fares.


Patrick Dorey
Last modified: 16 September 2010