6D Superconformal Field Theory Seminar - David Morrison

Event Date: 

Friday, October 2, 2015 - 4:00pm
Friday, October 2, 2015 - 5:30pm

Event Location: 

  • 6635 South Hall

Event Price: 

Free

  • Geometry
  • Topology
  • and Physics Seminar

Conformal field theories in dimensions above four are rather exotic 
objects, and it is only with the help of string theory (and its cousins)
that examples were constructed starting in the 1990's. All known
examples are supersymmetric.

In the past two years, there has been rather dramatic progress in
classifying these theories in six dimensions (with minimal supersymmetry).
The classification results at present concern a class of these theories
whose construction and properties involve the algebraic geometry
of elliptic fibrations. (Many of the intermediate results can be
expressed purely in terms of quantum field theory, but some key steps
require the assumption of an algebo-geometric construction.)

I will introduce this subject to both mathematicians and physicists
in this lecture. I hope to give some followup lectures with additional
details later in the quarter (or in future quarters).