CPT colloquium: Shai Chester

Thursday 9 Oct 2025, 13:00 → 14:00 Europe/London

OC218 (OC218)

Title: Conformal field theory in quantum gravity and the lab

 

Abstract:

Conformal field theories (CFT) are ubiquitous in physics: they describe phase transitions of magnets and superfluids that can be studied in the lab, as well as provide the only known non-perturbative description of quantum gravity via the AdS/CFT conjecture. These CFTs are often strongly coupled, however, so for precise calculations we need non-perturbative methods such as the conformal bootstrap and supersymmetric localization. I will explain how these new methods have been used to resolve long standing experimental questions about the superfluid Helium phase transition, make predictions for string theory corrections to Einstein's equations, and in general probe strongly coupled systems across theoretical physics.