Speaker: Andrew Neitzke, UT Austin
Date: Tue Feb. 3
Time: 4:10 PM (Refreshments 20 minutes before talk)
Location: 1147 MSB
Title: The many uses of BPS particles
Abstract: "BPS particles" are certain distinguished objects which
arise in supersymmetric quantum field theory. You do not have to know
what they are to understand this talk: I will focus on a simple class
of examples which are geometrically concrete and self-contained, where
BPS states correspond to certain special geodesics or geodesic webs on
Riemann surfaces. In the last few years it has been understood that
BPS states are connected to various other problems in mathematics and
physics, ranging from hyperkahler geometry to analysis of ODEs,
cluster algebras, and Chern-Simons theory. I will give an overview of
the story. Most of the work I review is joint work with Davide Gaiotto
and Greg Moore; I will also touch on some upcoming work with Dan
Freed.
