Events Daily

Today, Tuesday, February 10, 2026
      

Extremal couplings, graviton exchange, and gluon scattering in AdS
Shai Chester, Imperial College
Event Type: Special Seminar
Time: 12:30 PM - 1:30 PM
Location: 726 Broadway, 940, CCPP Seminar
Abstract: Extremal cubic couplings in AdS relate bulk fields such that $Delta_i+Delta_j=Delta_k$. Such couplings lead to divergent 3-point Witten diagrams, and do not occur in theories with maximal supersymmetry. We consider the simplest theories where such coupling are non-zero, which are string or M-theory on singular spacetimes with fixed point loci AdS_{d+1}xS^3 for d=3,4,6, which are dual to CFTs in d dimensions. These theories have infinite towers of graviton modes, as well as gluon modes on the singularities. We compute the nonzero coupling between these modes, which is in general (super)-extremal. We use these couplings to compute the graviton exchange term in the holographic correlator of gluon KK modes, which we match to the expected answer in the flat space limit. We then use this graviton exchange term to compute the unmixing of the single trace graviton modes with double traces of gluon modes, which explains the divergent 3-point diagrams.

Link to the Event Video


The curious afterlives of cataclysmic variable mergers
Nicholas Rui, Princeton University
Event Type: Astro Seminar
Time: 2:00 PM - 3:15 PM
Location: 726 Broadway, 940, CCPP Seminar
Abstract: Stars often merge with each other, leaving behind a rich diversity of stellar merger remnants. I will describe the unusual photometric, chemical, and pulsational properties of the red-giant-like remnants of recently merged cataclysmic-variable systems. I will further argue that we may have already discovered the long-extinguished white dwarfs left behind by these ancient mergers. (arXiv:2404.14474,2601.00072)

Link to the Event Video