Conference

In this talk I will describe how to calculate the exact partition function for free bosons on the plane with lacunae using world line effective field theory. It will be shown that the partition function for a plane with two spherical holes can be calculated by matching exactly for the infinite set of Wilson coefficients and then performing the ensuing Gaussian integration. This same partition function can also be calculated using conformal field theory technique and the equality of the two results will be shown. I will demonstrate that there is an exact correspondence between the Wilson coefficients (susceptabilities) in the effective field theory and the weights of the individual excitations of the closed string coherent state on the boundary. The partition function for the case of three holes, where CFT techniques necessitate a closed form for the map from the corresponding closed string pants diagram, is still calculable within the EFT. I will also show how conformal mappings can be used within the matching procedure to calculate the partition function for elliptically shaped boundaries. Finally I will show that the Wilson coefficients for the case of quartic and higher order kernels, where standard CFT techniques are no longer applicable, can also be completely determined.

Using an approach originally developed to study gravitational wave absorption in black hole binary systems, we generalize the EFT of single clock inflation to include dissipative effects. We restrict ourselves to situations where the degrees of freedom responsible for dissipation do no contribute to the density perturbations at late time, and moreover they are predominately sensitive to the field whose fluctuations control the end of inflation. The dynamics of the perturbations is then modified by the appearance of `friction' and noise terms, and assuming certain locality properties we show that there is a regime, characterized by a large friction coefficient \gamma >> H, in which the power spectrum is dominated by the noise and it is significantly modified with respect to the Bunch-Davies result. Furthermore, the non-linear realization of the symmetries implies non-gaussianties which are enhanced with respect to single clock models without dissipation by a factor of \gamma/H, and whose shape functions can in principle be distinguished from those obtained in the Bunch-Davies vacuum. We also discuss the matching of the EFT with a few key examples such as trapped and warm inflation.