Organizers:
*Shota Komatsu, CERN
Mukund Rangamani, University of California Davis
Xi Yin, Harvard University
*represents the organizer in charge of promoting diversity
We have seen progress on several fronts in string theory in recent years. For instance, our understanding of string compactifications has broadened, we are learning to strengthen constrains on low-energy effective field theories, and coming to grips with gauge/gravity dualities beyond the classical gravity regime. These have been aided by the development of new tools, in particular in string field theory. The workshop aims to leverage this progress to tackle outstanding challenges.
Questions we hope to address during the program include:
a) understanding BFSS quantum mechanics and matrix string theory as potentially providing non-perturbative definition of M-theory and Type IIA superstrings,
b) furthering the goal of deriving gauge/gravity dualities,
c) applications of solvable non-critical string theories such the Virasoro minimal string and its cousins, and
d) characterizing non-supersymmetric string vacua.
All an all, we hope the workshop will provide an opportunity to deepen our understanding of the fundamental principles governing string theory.
Summer Workshops
The summer program, running for 16 weeks from late-May to mid-September, emphasizes exciting open problems at the cutting edge. Two or three concurrent workshops, each with a specific focus selected for timeliness and the potential for breakthroughs and of two to five weeks in length, establish the main themes of each week, with twelve or thirteen different workshops each summer, balanced across fields including particle physics, string theory, astrophysics and hard and soft condensed matter physics, as well as emerging areas including biological physics, ultra-cold atom physics, quantum information, and physical mathematics. Additional researchers participate in small working groups or as individual researchers. This framework is designed to maximize informal interactions and free discussion within each area and to promote cross-fertilization between different areas via the common language of theoretical physics. Participation in the summer program of the Aspen Center for Physics is by application and subsequent invitation only. View past workshops.
