Speaker: Daniel Harlow (MIT)

Title: Symmetry in quantum field theory and quantum gravity 1

Abstract: In this talk I will give an overview of semi-recent work with Hirosi Ooguri arguing that three old conjectures about symmetry in quantum gravity are true in the AdS/CFT correspondence.  These conjectures are 1) that there are no global symmetries in quantum gravity, 2) that dynamical objects transforming in all irreducible representations of any gauge symmetry must exist, and 3) all internal gauge symmetries must be compact.  Along the way I will need to carefully define what we mean by gauge and global symmetries in quantum field theory and quantum gravity, which leads to interesting applications in various related fields.  These definitions will be the focus of the first talk, while the second will apply them to AdS/CFT to prove conjectures 1-3).