ICTS virtual string seminars
13th January 2021
Large-N Expansion and String Theory Out of Equilibrium
Christopher Mogni
UC Berkeley, USA
Abstract: "String theory has been incredibly successful at describing both gauge and gravity systems in equilibrium, whereby the vacuum state is assumed to be eternal and static. While progress has been made in applying string theory to non-equilibrium scenarios, such as the fate of non-extremal black holes and early universe cosmology, there is no framework for describing string theory out of equilibrium. In this talk, I will describe how the large-N expansion of field theories with matrix degrees of freedom put on a closed time contour implies a refined topological worldsheet expansion for strings out of equilibrium."
