MS Seminar (Mathematics - String Theory)

Speaker: David McGady (Kavli IPMU)
Title: Surprises in gauge theories: temperature-reflection symmetry, hidden
Date (JST): Tue, May 12, 2015, 13:15 - 14:30
Place: Seminar Room A
Related File: 1461.pdf
Abstract: I will discuss the presence of a previously unrecognized +T -> -T temperature-reflection (T-reflection) symmetry for the partition functions of a number of physically interesting quantum theories. T-reflection symmetry turns out to have several striking consequences. For instance, it helps reveal that the confining-phase partition functions of infinite N gauge theories on S^3 times S^1 have very simple modular properties, and suggests a remarkable 4D-2D spectral equivalence. T-reflection symmetry also plays a key role in the discovery of a universal spectral sum rule in these confined gauge theories, which forces their infinite-N S^3 Casimir vacuum energies to vanish.