Integrability and Gauge/String Duality

[RG # 131] Integrability and Gauge/String Duality

March 1 - May 31, 2012

Organizers:
Matthias Staudacher (Humboldt-University, Berlin)
Romuald Janik (Jagiellonian University)

The focus of the group is on a currently intensively-studied model in theoretical physics, which has been termed by some the "hydrogen atom of the 21st century". The basic idea and goal was to construct a mathematically exact solution of an, admittedly idealized, quantum field theory of the general type as occurs in the description of the forces between our universe's elementary particles, with the notable exception of the gravitational force.

Yang-Mills gauge theory is named for its inventors, Chen Ning Yang and Robert Mills. The word gauge refers to the fact that at the heart of these theories lies a certain built-in redundancy in its mathematical description very hard to eliminate, while apparently necessary in order to properly record and understand the rules of the game. The idealized system at the focus of our group is called N=4 super Yang-Mills gauge theory. It stipulates that in addition to our standard continuous ("bosonic") spacetime dimensions, certain hidden discrete ("fermionic") dimensions exist. The number N=4 refers to the fact that this model has four such curious symmetries.

The N=4 gauge model is the most beautiful and simplest Yang-Mills theory one can come up with, even though it certainly does not directly appear in nature. It is also a deeply mysterious model, and it has become clear in recent years that it possesses further hidden symmetries as well as seemingly contradictory, alternative descriptions, which promise to allow for a complete solution of the model, at least for certain quantities and in certain limits. This is precisely what we are setting out to achieve with our program at the IIAS.

2011-2012 Research Groups 2011-2012 Engineering and Mathematics

Members

Zoltan Bajnok

FELLOW

Hungarian Academy of Sciences

Zoltan Bajnok is a member of the Theoretical Physics Research Group of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Hungary. His research interests are: conformal field theories; integrable models; spin chains; AdS/CFT correspondence.

Nadav Drukker

FELLOW

King's College London

Zoltan Bajnok is a professor in Theoretical Physics at King's College London, UK. His research interests are: string theory; supersymmetric field theories; exactly soluble models.

Romuald Janik

FELLOW

Jagiellonian University

Romuald Janik is a professor at the Institute of Physics, Jagiellonian University, Poland. His research interests are various aspects of the AdS/CFT correspondence and string theory, in particular integrability and applications to quark-gluon plasma.

Vladimir Kazakov

FELLOW

LPTENS

Vladimir Kazakov is a professor at the Laboratoire de Physique Théorique de l'Ecole Normale Supérieure (LPTENS), France. His research interests are various aspects of the AdS/CFT correspondences and string theory, in particular integrability and applications to quark-gluon plasma.

Jan Plefka

FELLOW

Humboldt University

Jan Plefka is a professor at the Institute of Physics, Humboldt University, Germany. His research interests are quantum field theory, string theory, statistical mechanics, matrix models, integrability, and AdS/CFT correspondence.

Matthias Staudacher

FELLOW

Humboldt University

Matthias Staudacher is a professor at the Institute of Mathematics and the Institute of Physics, Humboldt University, Germany. His research interests are quantum field theory, string theory, non-perturbative quantum gravity, matrix models and large N limit.