Solving Gauge and String Theories with Integrable Spin Chains
2012
Thursday 02 February 2012
from 15:15
to 16:15 at
Oskar Klein Auditorium
Speaker :
Niklas Beisert (Institute for Theoretical Physics, ETH Zürich)
Abstract :
The standard model of particle physics is built upon four-dimensional gauge
theories. Unfortunately, computations within them are intrinsically hard, and
our knowledge is therefore restricted to tiny fractions of their parameter
space. In recent years we have made considerable progress towards solving the
spectrum of at least one such theory exactly by employing technology well-known
from condensed matter physics such as integrable spin chains. Our findings give
new insights into string theory and the conjectured duality to gauge theories.
In this talk I will review the connections between gauge theories, string
theories and spin chains. For planar maximally supersymmetric gauge theory we
were able to show beyond reasonable doubt that the model is integrable. Due to
integrability one can make use of the so-called Bethe ansatz to solve the
spectrum of the model very efficiently. I will outline and illustrate this
procedure and its implications in simple terms.
