Research String Theory and Gauge Theory

Grants and Contracts Details

Description

The proposed research will consist of several projects which involve both formal end phenomenological aspects of String Theory, related theories of Quantum Gravity, and su- persymmetric Quantum Field Theory. The proposed projects are: To use holographic correspondences in string theory to understand cosmological sin- gularities. In recent years, the AdS/CFT correspondence has been used by the PT and collaborators, as well as other groups, to construct toy models of space-like and null singularities whose gauge theory duals can be analyzed in a controlled fashion. In these models the gauge theory allows time evolution beyond the time when the supergravity description of the bulk becomes singular. At late times, this leads to normal space-times for models of null singularities and to black holes for the models of spacelike singularities considered so far. The proposed research builds on this work and explores scenarios where black hole formation may he possibly avoided. * To study the question of deciphering microstates of black holes. Specifically, we plan to consider the scattering of supergravity modes from a Dl-D5 system and investigate how finite charge effects in the absorption cross-section encode details of the microstates. * To investigate recently proposed holographic dualities between field theories with non- relativistic conformal invariance and gravity in suitable backgrounds, with possible applications to the physics of cold atoms or Lifshitz-type fixed points. * To study properties of strongly-coupled superconformal field theories (SCFTs) in four dimensions. Tools recently developed by the co-PT for the purpose of computing central charges in Ar = 2 SCFTs will be applied to the computation of correlation functions. Further development of these methods will allow study of a wider variety of SCFTs, including certain H = 1 theories. * To explore the renormalization group flows of quiver gauge theories, with an eye to- ward applications to the problem of finding a measure to describe the landscape of string vacua at low energies. This project will seek both to classif.y the rich variety of phenomena that can occur and to identify generic properties of classes of flows, which could be useful for making statistical predictions. * To reveal the internal structure and dynamics of multicentered dyon states in H = 2 gauge and supergravity theories, and to explore implications of this structure for BPS spectra. In order to carry out the proposed research, we are requesting summer research salary for the PT and the co-PI, support for a postdoctoral associate, support for a graduate student, travel funds for collaborative visits and conferences, and funds for consultant services to support a visitors' program.
StatusFinished
Effective start/end date8/15/097/31/13

Funding

  • National Science Foundation: $519,600.00

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