Talks

Atomic clocks are the most precise timekeepers ever built. If you could keep an advanced atomic clock running long enough, it would neither gain nor lose a single second over the entire lifespan of the universe. With the availability of spectrally pure lasers and the ability to precisely measure optical frequencies, it appears the era of optical atomic clocks has begun. Advances in atomic clocks are expected to be important in a range of emerging technological applications, including quantum computers. Dr. David Wineland, 2012 Nobel Laureate in Physics, will explore the theoretical and technological know-how needed to build these ultra-precise timepieces during his Perimeter Institute Public Lecture on Wednesday, Nov. 4. 

Topological phases of matter are phases of matter which are not characterized
by classical local order parameters of some sort. Instead, it is the global properties
of quantum many-body ground states which distinguish one topological phase from
another. One way to detect such global properties is to put the system on a topologically
non-trivial space (spacetime). For example, topologically ordered phases in (2+1)
dimensions exhibit ground state degeneracy which depends on the topology of the spatial manifold.
In this talk, I will discuss how one can use a {\it unoriented} space (spacetime)
to detect non-trivial properties of topological phases of matter in the presence
of discrete spacetime symmetry, such as time-reversal or reflection symmetry.
In particular, I will show how interaction effects on topological insulators and
superconductors can be understood using quantum anomalies on unoriented spacetime.

The Reeh-Schlieder theorem says, roughly, that, in any reasonable quantum field theory,  for any bounded region of spacetime R, any state can be approximated arbitrarily closely by operating on the vacuum state (or any state of bounded energy) with operators formed by smearing polynomials in the field operators with functions having support in R.  This strikes many as counterintuitive, and Reinhard Werner has glossed the theorem as saying that “By acting on the vacuum with suitable operations in a terrestrial laboratory, an experimenter can create the Taj Mahal on (or even behind) the Moon!” This talk has two parts.  First, I hope to convince listeners that the theorem is not counterintuitive,  and that it follows immediately from facts that are already familiar fare to anyone who has digested the opening chapters of any standard introductory textbook of QFT.  In the second, I will discuss what we can learn from the theorem about how relativistic causality is implemented in quantum field theories.

The evolution of many kinetic processes in 1+1 dimensions results in 2D directed percolative landscapes. The active phases of those models possess numerous hidden geometric orders characterized by distinct percolative patterns. From Monte-Carlo simulations of the directed percolation (DP) and the contact process (CP) we demonstrate the emergence of those patterns at specific critical points as a result of continuous phase transitions.These geometric transitions belong to the DP universality class and their nonlocal order parameters are the capacities of corresponding backbones. The multitude of conceivable percolative ordering patterns implies the existence of infinite cascades of such transitions in the models considered. We conjecture that such cascades of transitions is a generic feature of percolation as well as many other transitions with non-local order parameters.

Quantum field theory on curved space has long been studied for its interesting phenomenology, and more recently also as a means to obtain non-perturbative results in supersymmetric theories. In this talk I will describe the holographic dual for N=4 SYM coupled to massive N=2 flavors on spaces of constant curvature. With that in hand, I will discuss a topology-changing phase transition on S^4 and confront holographic computations with exact field theory results obtained using supersymmetric localization.

Is the graviton a truly massless spin-2 particle, or can the graviton have a small mass? If the mass of the graviton is of order the Hubble scale today, it can potentially help to explain the observed cosmic acceleration. Previous attempts to study massive gravity have been spoiled by the fact that a generic potential for the graviton leads to an instability called the Boulware-Deser ghost. Recently, a special potential has been constructed which avoids this problem while maintaining Lorentz invariance. In this talk I will present recent arguments that suggest that the requirement of avoiding the Boulware-Deser ghost (or other degrees of freedom) is so powerful that the kinetic term for a massive graviton is fixed as well. In fact it must be exactly the same as in General Relativity. This is remarkable as we derive the structure of General Relativity on the basis of stability requirements, not on a symmetry principle.