LMP Seminar (video conference): How string theory emerges from the harmonic oscillator
LMP Seminar (video conference)
- Date: Jun 30, 2020
- Time: 02:00 PM - 03:30 PM (Local Time Germany)
- Speaker: Dr. Murad Alim
- Department of Mathematics, University of Hamburg
- Location: Max-Planck-Institut für Dynamik und Selbstorganisation (MPIDS)
- Room: Link to the talk: https://zoom.us/j/96266444298
- Host: MPIDS / LMP
- Contact: Philip.Bittihn@ds.mpg.de
The Hamiltonian formulation of the one-dimensional harmonic oscillator associates a curve in phase space to a given energy. In terms of complex phase space variables, this curve is a two-dimensional Riemann surface. The Schrödinger equation in the corresponding quantum mechanical problem can be interpreted as a quantization of the curve. The WKB method provides a solution to the equation as a formal asymptotic power series in the Planck constant hbar. Surprisingly, the hbar expansion terms correspond to perturbative loop expansion free energies of a topological string theory. Both the expansion terms as well as the re-summed power series have intriguing mathematical and physical meaning. I will outline this setup as well as its generalizations, which lead to non-perturbative descriptions of gauge theories as well as microstate counting problems of black holes. These are subjects studied by a community of physicists and mathematicians working on the geometry of quantum field and string theories.