"Topological sectors, supersymmetric localization, and holography"

Speaker: Silviu Pufu, Princeton University

When: November 29, 2017 (Wed), 03:45PM to 04:45PM (add to my calendar)
Location: PRB 595

This event is part of the HET Seminar Series.

Correlation functions are interesting observables in quantum field theory that are very hard to compute away from perturbative expansions. I will describe recent work where, in supersymmetric theories, exact computations of such observables are possible using the technique of supersymmetric localization. I will focus on three-dimensional superconformal field theories (SCFTs) with {\cal N} = 4 supersymmetry, where the operators I study form a one-dimensional topological sector. In the special case of 3d SCFTs with AdS_4 holographic duals, I will describe the bulk duals of the corresponding topological sectors. This yields instances of a 2d/1d holographic duality where the bulk theories are weakly coupled and the boundary theories are exactly solvable.