North Wing Seminar

When: Tuesday November 10 at 12:30pm

 

Where: PAS236

 

Who: Umut Oktem (U Arizona)

 

Title: “Geometry of Scattering Amplitudes from Weak to Strong Coupling”

 

Abstract: "Scattering amplitudes are functions in quantum field theory that high energy physicists compute to learn more about laws of physics. These functions are useful for characterizing fundamental observables in a wide range of scales, from subatomic interactions in the LHC to black holes. In the last few decades, the traditional toolkit for computing them has been supplemented by new methods that leverage constraints imposed by symmetries and fundamental physical principles, such as locality and unitarity. These efforts have elucidated a rich mathematical structure of scattering amplitudes that was not manifest before. The newfound structures were then in turn used to develop new tools, leading to a virtuous cycle where both our understanding of the underlying QFT and our control over physical observables improve. In this talk, I will focus on a particular example of these methods that relate amplitudes to objects called positive geometries, and go over a toy model where we can use them to access information even in strong coupling.”