Flux Tubes

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Conference Date: 
Wednesday, May 13, 2015 (All day) to Friday, May 15, 2015 (All day)
Scientific Areas: 
Particle Physics
Quantum Fields and Strings

 

Recent years have witnessed unprecedented progress in the study of (supersymmetric)
gauge theories. Among all the exciting developments, two parallel lines of research have been conducted, almost independently, for both confining and non-confining theories using very similar techniques; namely, the integrable structures underlying the dynamics of colour flux tubes. These flux tubes stand as the most stringy degrees of freedom of gauge theories and are believed to be the right variables for unveiling their most nonperturbative aspects, be them confining or not. On the non-confining side of the story, integrability has emerged as one of the most powerful and promising tool for solving the maximally supersymmetric version of the Yang-Mills theory. When applied to the study of the flux-tube dynamics, in the limit of a large number of colours, this technique has led to the non-perturbative determination of a variety of observables. Null polygonal Wilson loops stand out among them all. Not only do they admit a very nice interpretation in terms of flux tubes stretching from one edge of the loops to the other and evolving as dictated by the geometry of these loops, but also happen to be dual to gluons scattering amplitudes -- which are observables of primordial interest in any gauge theories. Despite the many recent progress in taming the dynamics of these flux tubes, their study is still is its infancy and many open questions remain. One of the most pressing and important issue, which we hope to address during the workshop, is whether a system of Thermodynamical Bethe Ansatz equations, akin to the one governing the spectral problem of non-confining (and confining!) gauge theories, exists for the scattering amplitudes / Wilson loops -- and this regardless of the tension, i.e., of the value of the 't Hooft coupling. On the confining side of the story, an impressive amount of high-quality lattice data on the properties of flux tubes has been collected over the past decade. However, until recently, the interpretation of this data has remained problematic -- mostly because existing theoretical techniques for calculating flux tube spectra were highly inaccurate for the relatively short flux tubes probed on the lattice. The situation changed drastically over the last few years. The two major ingredients leading to this progress are the full use of non-linearly realized Poincare symmetry and the application of powerful techniques based on (approximate) integrability for calculating the spectrum. This allowed to identify the first massive excitation on the world sheet of the confining string and paved the way for a comprehensive study of the world sheet dynamics based on lattice data. The goal of this informal meeting will be to assess the current status of these rapidly evolving fields by bringing together experts working in both camps, stimulating discussions and provoking cross-fertilization of ideas. We also look forward to hosting discussions on other exciting recent developments. We anticipate having 10 to 20 participants and will have two discussion sessions every day, one in the morning and the other in the afternoon. Each session will start with one review talk without time constraint and will continue into an informal discussion led by the speaker.

This workshop is also part of the UNIFY network.  Participants from the UNIFY nodes are welcome to participate.

Sponsorship for this conference has been provided by:

  • Mohamed Anber, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne
  • Andreas Athenodorou, University of Cyprus
  • Andrei Belitsky, Arizona State Univrsity
  • Lance Dixon, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
  • Davide Fioravanti, University of Bologna
  • Victor Gorbenko, New York University
  • Simeon Hellerman, Kavli (IPMU)
  • Zohar Komargodski, Weizman Institute of Science
  • Georgios Papathanasiou, LAPTH
  • Amit Sever, Institute for Advanced Study
  • Roberto Tateo, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare
  • Michael Teper, University of Oxford

 

  • Mohamed Anber, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne
  • Andreas Athenodorou, University of Cyprus
  • Benjamin Basso, École Normale Supérieure - Laboratoire de Physique Théorique
  • Andrei Belitsky, Arizona State Univrsity
  • Lakshya Bhardwaj, Perimeter Institute
  • Lucia Cordova, Perimeter Institute
  • Frank Coronado, Perimeter Institute
  • Lance Dixon, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
  • Sergei Dubovsky, New York University
  • Davide Fioravanti, University of Bologna
  • Raphael Flauger, Carnegie Mellon University
  • Davide Gaiotto, Perimeter Institute
  • Victor Gorbenko, New York University
  • Song He, Perimeter Institute
  • Simeon Hellerman, Kavli (IPMU)
  • Zohar Komargodski, Weizman Institute of Science
  • Shota Komatsu, Perimeter Institute
  • Dalimil Mazac. Perimeter Institute
  • Marco Meineri, Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa
  • Miroslav Rapcak, Perimeter Institute
  • Amit Sever, Institute for Advanced Study
  • Roberto Tateo, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare
  • Michael Teper, University of Oxford
  • Jonathan Toledo, University of Porto
  • Edoardo Vescovi, Humboldt University Berlin
  • Pedro Vieira, Perimeter Institute
  • Matt von Hippel, Perimeter Institute
  • An Zhou, Perimeter Institute

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Time

Event

Location

9:00 – 9:30am

Registration

Reception

9:30 – 10:30am

Mike Teper, University of Oxford
Lattice data on flux tube

Alice Room

10:30 – 11:00am

Coffee Break

Bistro – 1st Floor

11:00 – 12:30pm

Mike Teper, University of Oxford
Continued:  Lattice data on flux tube

Alice Room

12:30 – 2:00pm

Lunch

Bistro – 2nd Floor

2:00 - 3:00pm Erik Verlinde, University of Amsterdam
Colloquium
String Theory, Entropic Gravity and the Dark Universe
 
Theatre

3:00 – 4:30pm

Andrei Belitsky, Arizona State University
Benjamin Basso, LPTENS
The N=4 flux tube and Integrability

Alice Room

4:30 – 5:00pm

Coffee Break

Bistro – 1st Floor

5:00 – 6:00pm

Andrei Belitsky, Arizona State University
Benjamin Basso, LPTENS
Continued:  The N=4 flux tube and Integrability

Alice Room

 

Thursday, May 14, 2015

Time

Event

Location

9:30 – 10:30am

Lance Dixon, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
Wilson Loops, Scattering Amplitudes and the Flux Tube

Alice Room

10:30 – 11:00am

Coffee Break

Bistro – 1st Floor

11:00 – 12:30pm

Lance Dixon, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
Continued:  Wilson Loops, Scattering Amplitudes and the Flux Tube

Alice Room

12:30 – 2:00pm

Lunch Break

Bistro – 2nd Floor

2:00 - 3:00pm Gerard 't Hooft, Utrecht University
Colloquium
The CA interpretation of quantum mechanics
 
Theatre

3:00 – 4:30pm

Victor Gorbenko, New York University
Flux tube spectra from approximate integrability 

Alice Room

4:30 – 4:40pm

Conference Photo   

TBA

4:40 – 5:00pm

Coffee Break

Bistro – 1st Floor

5:00 – 6:00pm

Victor Gorbenko, New York University
Continued:  Flux tube spectra from approximate integrability 

Alice Room

6:30pm Onwards

Banquet

Bistro – 2nd Floor

 

Friday, May 15, 2015

Time

Event

Location

9:30 – 10:30am

Zohar Komargodski, Weizman Institute of Science
What is next for confining strings

Alice Room

10:30 – 11:00am

Coffee Break

Bistro – 1st Floor

11:00 – 12:30pm

Zohar Komargodski, Weizman Institute of Science
Continued:  What is next for confining strings

Alice Room

12:30 – 2:30pm

Lunch

Bistro – 2nd Floor

2:40 – 4:00pm

Amit Sever, Institute for Advanced Study
What is next for the N=4 flux tube? 

Alice Room

4:00 – 4:30pm

Coffee Break

Bistro – 1st Floor

4:00 – 5:30pm

Amit Sever, Institute for Advanced Study
Continued:  What is next for the N=4 flux tube? 

Alice Room

 

Scientific Organizers:

Benjamin Basso, École Normale Supérieure - Laboratoire de Physique Théorique (LPTENS)
Sergei Dubovsky, New York University
Raphael Flauger, Carnegie Mellon University
Pedro Vieira, Perimeter Institute