MS Seminar (Mathematics - String Theory)

Speaker: Charles Melby-Thompson (Fudan University)
Title: A Holographic Study of Chern-Simons Defects
Date (JST): Tue, Feb 09, 2016, 13:15 - 14:30
Place: Seminar Room A
Abstract: Chern-Simons gauge theories in 3 dimensions are an important class of quantum field theories, both because they (and their matter extensions) offer some of the few solvable QFTs in more than 2 dimensions, and because of their real-world a pplications in condensed matter theory.
In this talk we will discuss domain walls that shift the value of the Chern-Simons level in field theories described in the IR by Chern-Simons-Yang-Mills theory, and their embedding in gauge/gravity correspondence in terms of D7 branes on the AdS soliton geometry. After carrying out holographic renormalization to evaluate the free energy with sources, we evaluate the be havior of correlation functions on and between defects, and from this derive interesting phase transitions as a function of defect separation and temperature. We will also comment on implications for the fractional quantum hall effect and 2d QCD. T his work was done in collaboration with M. Fujita, R. Meyer, and S. Sugimoto.