Talks

I will explain a recently proposed holographic scenario for pure dS3 Einstein quantum gravity. The dual description is a double-scaled matrix model, which is capable of capturing bulk cosmological correlators integrated over the metric at future infinity in order to define gauge-invariant observables. Moreover the matrix model has precisely the right number of degrees of freedom to account for the de Sitter entropy associated with the cosmological horizon seen by an observer. A key step in the logic is a reformulation of the gravity theory in terms of a novel topological quantum field theory. Based on work with Lorenz Eberhardt, Beatrix Mühlmann, building on previous work with Victor Rodriguez.

The measurement of the electron magnetic moment (g-2)_e has reached the spectacular precision of sub-parts-per-trillion, and is currently the highest-precision measurement of a property of a fundamental particle. The next iteration of the measurement is expected to improve the precision by almost an order of magnitude, at which point the leading systematic uncertainty will be the “cavity shift”: the modification of the electron energy levels due to the conducting walls of the cavity in which the electron is trapped. This quantity cannot be directly measured at the required precision, and must be calculated. I will review the setup of the (g-2)_e experiment and present a new calculation of the cavity shift using the full machinery of quantum mechanics and quantum electrodynamics, which improves upon previous classical calculations with a consistent renormalization scheme while allowing for individual quality factors for each cavity mode.