INVITED SPEAKERS

Anastasiou, Charalambos (ETH, Zurich)

Title: Higgs precision physics

Abstract: The discovery of the Higgs boson signaled the beginning of a new era in particle physics. In the coming decade(s), the experiments of the Large Hadron Collider will perform a plethora of very accurate measurements of phenomena associated with the new particle. These measurements will help us to answer fundamental questions in particle physics. To what extend is the Higgs physics responsible for the mass of the known elementary particles? Is the Higgs boson a portal to dark matter? How sensitive are the Higgs boson interactions to the laws of physics at very high energies? This presentation will describe the role of the Higgs particle and the Higgs field in nature and the exciting prospects of precision Higgs physics at the Large Hadron Collider.

Florakis, Ioannis (CERN)

Title: Universality of radiative corrections to gauge couplings in string theories with spontaneous supersymmetry breaking

Abstract: I will present the first calculation of radiative corrections to non-abelian gauge couplings in four-dimensional heterotic vacua with spontaneously broken supersymmetry. These vacua may be considered as K3 surfaces with additional Scherk-Schwarz fluxes responsible for the spontaneous N=2 ---> N=0 breaking. Remarkably, although the gauge thresholds are no longer BPS protected and receive contributions also from the full tower of string states, we find that their difference is still BPS saturated and exhibits a universal behaviour. This highly non-trivial and unexpected result, expressible in closed form in terms of standard elliptic functions and exact to all orders in the characteristic string length, was made possible to obtain using a recently developed mathematical technique in works done in collaboration with C. Angelantonj and B. Pioline. The universality and simplicity of the results also extends to more phenomenologically pertinent string vacua and could open new possibilities for string model building.

Niarchos, Vasilis (U. Crete)

Title: Some exact results in 4d N=2 superconformal field theories

Abstract: I will present some recently obtained exact results for correlation functions of chiral primary operators in four-dimensional superconformal field theories using a combination of analytic non-perturbative methods based on localization and tt* geometry.

Panotopoulos, Grigoris (U. Chile)

Title: Higgs inflation with a Coleman-Weinberg potential and a non-minimal coupling to gravity.

Abstract: After a brief introduction to cosmology and Higgs mechanism, I will discuss a simple inflationary model based on well-known ingredients from particle physics and quantum field theory. I will show that the model is in agreement with the recent data for natural values of the couplings.

Pantelidou, Christiana (U. Barcelona)

Title: Four-dimensional conformal field theories with a helical twist

Abstract: We study holographically four-dimensional conformal field theories with a universal helical deformation. We construct numerically the dual black holes and we show that at zero temperature they flow in the IR to exactly the same CFT. The deformation gives rise to a finite, non-zero DC thermal conductivity along the axis of the helix, which we determine analytically in terms of black hole horizon data. The AC thermal conductivity along this axis exhibits Drude-like peaks.

Papadopoulos, George (Kings College)

Title: Symmetry enhancement near black hole and brane horizons

Abstract: Many of the recent developments in theoretical physics, like AdS/CFT, have been based on the observation that symmetry enhances as one approaches the horizon of black holes and branes. I shall begin my talk with some simple examples of the phenomenon and then I shall outline the proof of a general theorem which demonstrates that symmetry enhancement is a consequence of the smoothness of the fields near black hole horizons.

Papathanasiou, Georgios (LAPTh Annecy)

Title: The symmetry and integrability of amplitudes in N=4 super Yang-Mills theory

Abstract: N=4 super Yang-Mills theory stands out as an interacting 4-dimensional gauge theory which may be exactly solvable in the planar limit. In this talk, I report on recent progress in exploiting the symmetry and integrability of the theory, for the computation of its scattering amplitudes. For the 6-particle amplitude, integrability leads to explicit expressions up to 6 loops in special kinematics; and for 7 particles, the symmetry of the kinematic space, supplemented by a limited set of reasonable assumptions, uniquely fix the general answer up to 3 loops.

Pomoni, Elli (DESY)

Title: Integrability and Exact results in N=2 gauge theory

Abstract: Any N=2 gauge theory in four dimensions contains a set of local operators made only out of fields in the N=2 vector multiplet that is closed under renormalization to all loops, namely the SU(2,1|2) sector. We present a diagrammatic argument that for any planar N=2 theory the SU(2,1|2) Hamiltonian acting on infinite spin chains is

identical to all loops to that of N=4 SYM, up to a redefinition of the coupling constant g^2 → f(g^2). Thus, this sector is integrable and anomalous dimensions can be read off from the N=4 ones up to this redefinition. For each N=2 theory the universal function f(g^2) can be obtained by computing the circular Wilson loop using Pestun localization and comparing it to the N = 4 one.

Rigopoulos, Gerasimos (U. Heidelberg)

Title: On an effective field theory for cosmological clustering

Abstract: I will discuss an effective field theory for cosmological large scale structure where an effective gravitational viscosity damps the initial power and a stochastic force accounts for power generated from very short, highly non-linear scales that is uncorrelated with the initial power spectrum. The theory should arise in the context of standard CDM (Cold Dark Matter) but with a coarse graining introduced and, contrary to standard cosmologocal perturbation theory, it is renormalizable.