Who are we?
Who are we?
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The Thermal Seminars are a series of webinars on finite temperature quantum field theories, conformal field theories, and related topics, from holography, to black holes and bootstrap approaches.
The spirit of the webinars is to establish new connections in the community of people interested about thermal effects, offering a platform to meet and discuss the state of the art of the literature.
The Thermal Seminars are organized by Julien Barrat (DESY), Deniz Bozkurt (U. Hamburg), Enrico Marchetto (DESY), Alessio Miscioscia (YITP, Stony Brook).
Future Seminars schedule
Future Seminars schedule
Jul 7: Joan Elias Miró (ICTP) on 2512.16466
Thermal partition function from the S-matrix reloaded
Abstract: Over the past decade, S-matrix-based methods have undergone a remarkable resurgence as elegant and powerful tools for extracting physical information without relying on an underlying Lagrangian formulation. A central question is: given the exact S-matrix of a quantum field theory, what can we learn about its thermodynamic properties? In this talk, I will review the Dashen–Ma–Bernstein formalism, which relates thermodynamics directly to scattering amplitudes. I will illustrate it with the perturbative QCD equation of state and with the effective theory of long confining flux tubes, including non-universal corrections and comparisons with Thermodynamic Bethe Ansatz results. More broadly, these methods offer a way to extract thermodynamic observables directly from on-shell data, with potential applications to EFTs constrained by modern bootstrap and positivity techniques.
Jul 14: Paolo Arnaudo (U. of Southampton) on 2605.16489
Complete mode decomposition of Green’s functions and bouncing singularities
Abstract: Quasinormal modes are the characteristic damped oscillations of black holes and are central to the theory of ringdown. However, the quasinormal mode expansion of the retarded Green’s function provides a convergent representation only in a late-time region. In this talk, I will describe how to complete this mode decomposition by including a set of Matsubara modes, which reconstruct the Green’s function in the earlier-time region where the quasinormal mode sum fails. The main focus will be the Schwarzschild case. I will show that the boundary of the quasinormal mode convergence region has a precise geometric origin. It is controlled by singularities of the Green’s function at complex times, produced by null geodesics that bounce from the black-hole singularity. These bouncing singularities determine the radius of convergence of the quasinormal mode sum and explain the otherwise mysterious bounce radius appearing in the complete mode decomposition.
Jul 21: Peter Lowdon (Frankfurt U.) on 2606.14863
Towards a consistent perturbation theory at finite temperature
Abstract: The Gell-Mann-Low relation forms the foundation of all perturbative approaches to QFT. In order to establish how perturbation theory can be consistently generalised to finite-temperature systems it is therefore necessary to understand how this relation is modified by thermal effects. In this talk I will introduce a new proposal for how this relation should be generalised, based on the non-perturbative spectral characteristics of thermal correlation functions. I will outline why the perturbative expansion in this framework resolves the major problems of the standard real-time approach, and using numerical lattice simulations in massive $\phi^{4}$ theory I will demonstrate that this framework provides precise predictions of the lattice data, in contrast to the standard approach.
Jul 28: Mukund Rangamani (UC Davis) on 2512.15114 and 2604.10803
Thermal OPE, exact WKB, and the black hole singularity
Abstract: I will discuss analytic properties of thermal spectral functions of holographic CFTs, both at finite and asymptotic values of momenta. For a special class of scalar operators with integer dimensions in even dimensional holographic CFTs, we obtain a full transseries at large timelike momentum. This information, we argue, captures imprints of the black hole singularity in the dual field theory observables. Time permitting, I will also explain universality of these signatures. The talk is based on work with Hewei Frederic Jia.
August Break
Sep 8: Juan Maldacena (IAS)
Review talk
Past Seminars
Past Seminars
30/06/26: Enrico Andriolo (Durham University) on 2604.09768:
Proof of Entropic Order in Generalized Ising Models
23/06/26: Andreas Stergiou (King's College London) on 2604.18673 and 2604.18686:
Neural Spectral Bias and Conformal Correlators
16/06/26: Andrei Katsevich (Princeton U.) on 2604.08459:
PT-symmetric Field Theories at Finite Temperature
09/06/26: Alexey Milekhin (University of Kentucky) on 2602.17638:
Planckian bound on the local equilibration time
02/06/26: Paul Romatschke (TU Wien) on 2603.19877:
Finite Temperature Properties of Negative Coupling Scalar Field Theory19/05/26: Richard A. Davison (Heriot-Watt University) on 2512.11024:
Thermalization of (1+1)d QFTs at high temperature
12/05/26: Benjamin Withers (University of Southampton) on 2603.13469:
Holographic thermal correlators from Fourier series
05/05/26: Tin Sulejmanpasic (Durham University) on 2512.07980:
High temperature glass and high temperature order
28/04/26: Simone Giombi (Princeton University) on 2603.11012:
Thermal correlators on the Wilson line and bouncing singularities
21/04/26: Manuela Kulaxizi (TCD) on 2602.06558:
Bulk phase shift and singularity
14/04/26: Joydeep Chakravarty (McGill University) on 2512.10912:
Imprint of the black hole interior on thermal four-point correlators
31/03/26: Zohar Komargodski (SCGP) on 2603.10197:
Regge's Inferno
24/03/26: Charlotte Kristjansen (NBI) on 2512.23432:
Black Hole States in Quantum Spin Chains
10/03/26: Shiraz Minwalla (TIFR) on 2512.00158:
Semi-universality of CFT entropy at large spin
03/03/26: Pasquale Calabrese (SISSA)
A review on entanglement entropy
24/02/26: Yixin Xu (Caltech) on 2511.07569:
A genus-2 crossing equation in d≥2
17/02/26: Nejc Čeplak (TCD) on 2511.09638:
Using the OPE to look beyond horizons
10/02/26: Simon Caron-Huot (McGill U.) on 2510.21673:
Thermal two-point functions and the black hole (not) interior
03/02/26 : Robin Karlsson (Oxford) on 2511.09616:
Bouncing off a stringy singularity
27/01/26: Lennart Dabelow (Queen Mary University of London) on 2510.12696:
Temperature and conditions for thermalization after canonical quenches
20/01/26: Hong Liu (MIT) on 2509.14327:
"Filtering" CFTs at large N: Euclidean Wormholes, Closed Universes, and Black Hole Interiors
13/01/26: David Simmons-Duffin (Caltech) : review talk
The thermal bootstrap
16/12/25: Minjae Cho (LITP, University of Chicago) on 2410.04262, 2508.04764, 2511.08560:
Bootstrapping matrix quantum mechanics: equilibrium and nonequilibrium
09/12/25: Julio Virrueta (Jena U., TPI) on 2510.03404:
A Holographic prescription for generalized Schwinger-Keldysh contours
02/12/25: Mile Vrbica (Higgs CTP) on 2406.19790, 2505.14229, 2509.18074:
Thermal field theory correlators in the large-N limit and the spectral duality relation
25/11/25: Sean Hartnoll (Cambridge U., DAMTP) on 2509.18255:
Towards a quantum lattice bootstrap
18/11/25: Andrew Gomes (EPFL) on 2508.18346:
Schwinger-Keldysh effective theory of charge transport: redundancies and systematic ω/T expansion
04/11/25: Srijan Kumar (ICTS-TIFR) on 2508.14872:
High to low temperature: O(N) model at large N
28/10/25: Anastasios C. Petkou (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki) on 2508.16718:
The thermal representation of conformal ladder integrals
21/10/25: Maria Knysh (VUB) on 2508.05444:
Krylov exponents and power spectra for maximal quantum chaos: an EFT approach
14/10/25: Vasilis Niarchos (ITCP & CCTP) on 2508.08560:
Deep Finite Temperature Bootstrap
07/10/25: Ilija Burić (TCD) on 2508.08373:
Holographic Correlators from Thermal Bootstrap
30/09/25: Luca Delacrétaz (Chicago U., EFI) on 2505.06869 and 2310.10564:
EFTs for thermal dynamics in QFT
16/09/25: Ignacio Salazar Landea (La Plata - CONICET) on 2507.13497:
Out-of-bounds hydrodynamics in holographic anisotropic Dirac semimetals
09/09/25: Johanna Erdmenger (Würzburg) on 2506.02113:
Classical spin liquids from frustrated Ising models in hyperbolic space
02/09/25: Subir Sachdev (Harvard University) : review talk
Quantum critical dynamics of the Ising model in 2 spatial dimensions
05/08/25: Sara Murciano (Orsay, LPTMS) on 2502.08087:
The quantum Mpemba effects
29/07/25: Francesco Mangialardi (DESY) on 2506.21671:
Extracting 3D CFT Data from Thermal Correlators
08/07/25: Deniz Bozkurt (DESY) on 2506.06422:
An Analytic Bootstrap Framework for Thermal CFTs
01/07/25: Andrei Parnachev (TCD) on 2505.10277:
OPE and Thermal Holography
17/06/25: Sridip Pal (Caltech) on 2503.24353:
Thermal EFT and Universality of Rényi entropy in CFT
10/06/25: Batoul Banihashemi (Stanford) on 2503.17471:
Thermal effective actions from conformal boundary conditions in gravity
03/06/25: Jyotirmoy Bhattacharya (IIT, Kharagpur) on 2504.17781:
Thermal Product Formula for Shear Modes
27/05/25: Anatoly Dymarsky (U. of Kentucky) on 2409.19046, 2409.19271:
Subsystem entropy in 2d CFT and the diagonal approximation
20/05/25: Waltraut Knop (YITP) on 2502.01734:
Symmetric Product Orbifold Universality and the Mirage of an Emergent Spacetime
13/05/25: Michele Caselle (U. of Turin and INFN) on 2407.10678 , 2501.16185:
High temperature behaviour of confining Lattice Gauge Theories
08/04/25: Justin Raj David (IISc) on 2212.07758, 2307.14847, 2406.14490, 2411.18509:
The large N vector model on a sphere and at finite temperature
01/04/25: Giorgio Frangi (Higgs CTP) on 2501.16441:
Microscopic derivation of dissipative terms in S-K EFTs
25/03/25: Matthew Dodelson (Harvard) on 2501.06170:
Ringdown at finite coupling
11/03/25: Marta Bucca (Oxford) on 2412.14799:
Soft mode action for the large-p SYK model
25/02/25: Samuel Valach (TCD) on 2404.17286:
Thermal Correlators and Black Hole Singularities
18/02/25: Fedor Popov (SCGP) on 2412.09459:
Temperature-Resistant Order in 2+1 Dimensions
28/01/25: Junchen Rong (CPhT) on 2412.01503:
From the Cubic CFT to the Quantum Loop model
Mailing list
Mailing list
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YouTube channel
YouTube channel
We created a YouTube channel to store the recorded Thermal Seminars. The channel can be accessed by clicking on the bubble below!
Organizers: Julien Barrat (DESY), Deniz Bozkurt (U. Hamburg), Enrico Marchetto (DESY), Alessio Miscioscia (YITP, Stony Brook)
Supported by ERC-2021-CoG - BrokenSymmetries 101044226
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