MS Seminar (Mathematics - String Theory)

Speaker: Patrick Jefferson (Harvard U)
Title: Classifying 5d SCFTs using Calabi-Yau 3-folds
Date (JST): Tue, Jan 22, 2019, 13:15 - 14:30
Place: Seminar Room A
Related File: 2162.pdf
Abstract: One of the great surprises to emerge from string theory is the prediction of supersymmetric QFTs with interacting UV superconformal fixed points in 5d and 6d. Although 6d superconformal fixed points are believed to (nearly) classified, the classification of 5d superconformal fixed points remains an open problem. In this talk, I discuss recent progress towards a classification of 5d fixed points in terms of singular Calabi-Yau 3-folds. I will explain how families of RG flows between different 5d theories are encoded in geometry, how these RG flows establish a direct connection with 6d theories, and how this geometric link between 5d and 6d can be used to design a systematic classification program.