Which conference lineup interests you more? (Strings '11 or mixed-QG 11)

[marcus]

QG 11 is a mixed conference (String, SUGRA, Loop, Noncommutative, AsymSafe, Causal...).
It starts next week in Zurich. A mere three days after QG 11 is over, Strings 2011 will start in Uppsala. So the two conferences are back-to-back, suggesting comparison.

Which of the two turns out more interesting to researchers will probably have an influence on future events. Which do you think will be more productive---stimulate more new research ideas, reveal more surprises to the participants, spark collaboration etc...?

Here are lists of the talks--the titles posted so far. Compare and see what you think.

Here is QG 11 lineup. They still have some unfilled timeslots for more talks TBA, but this is the main course of invited talks. To show the mix I colorcoded CDT talks (causal dynamical triangulations) and asymptotic safety QG talks, and those I considered especially stringy.

QG 11 TALKS
Ambjorn: CDT, a quantum theory of geometry
Arnlind: Poisson Algebraic Geometry and Matrix Regularizations
Ashtekar: Quantum Cosmology and the Very Early Universe
Bachas: The problem of localization of gravity
Baez: Higher gauge theory, division algebras and superstrings
Barrett: State sum models and the spectral action
Beisert: Symmetries and Integrability for Scattering Amplitudes in N=4 Super Yang-Mills Theory
Blau: String Theory as a Theory of Quantum Gravity: a Status Report
Bossard: Toward the consistency of N=8 supergravity as a quantum field theory
Chamseddine: The Spectral Action
Compere: The translation anomaly of asymptotically flat spacetimes
Craps: Cosmological singularities in string theory
de Goursac: Renormalizability of noncommutative quantum field theories
Dixon: Ultraviolet behavior of quantum (super)gravity through four loops
Elvang: Symmetry constraints on the UV behavior of N=8 supergravity
Giulini: Very basic issues concerning quantum mechanics and gravitation
Hoppe: Fundamental Structures of M-brane Theory
Jacobson: How general is the generalized second law?
Lechner: Covariant and local deformations of quantum field theories
Lewandowski: Canonical LQG: soluble models and other advances
Litim: Renormalisation group and the Planck scale
Loll: Nonperturbative highlights on quantum gravity from CDT
Longo: Boundary Quantum Field Theory and Conformal Field Theory
Mukhanov: Massive Gravity
Nicolai: Infinite-dimensional symmetries and the Wheeler-DeWitt equation
Reiterer: A class of gauges for the Einstein equations
Reuter: Einstein-Cartan Theory and Asymptotic Safety
Rovelli: Loop quantum gravity: the covariant dynamics
Speziale: Spin networks as twisted geometries
Steinacker: Matrix models, noncommutative gauge theory and emergent geometry
Wulkenhaar: Ward identities in matrix models arising from noncommutative geometry

http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/doku.php?id=qg11:start
============================
Here is the corresponding list of talk titles for Strings '11. There are 16 more titles yet to be posted, which I don't expect will change the general character of the programme.

STRINGS 2011 TALKS
Niklas Beisert (AEI Potsdam) "Counterterms and E7 Symmetry in N=8 Supergravity"
Henriette Elvang (University of Michigan) review talk "Recent progress on amplitudes"
Rajesh Gopakumar (Harish-Chandra Research Institute, Allahabad) "Holographic Minimal Models"
David Gross (KITP, Santa Barbara) opening talk
Jeff Harvey (University of Chicago) summary talk
Thomas Klose (Uppsala University) "Recent Results for Holographic Three-Point Functions"
Andrei Linde (Stanford University) "Chaotic inflation in supergravity"
Marcos Mariño (University of Geneva) "Exact results and stringy effects in ABJM theory"
Liam McAllister (Cornell University) review talk "String cosmology"
Juan Maldacena (IAS, Princeton) "Comments on de Sitter perturbation theory"
Greg Moore (Rutgers University) review talk "The Recent Role of (2,0) Theories in Physical Mathematics"
Yaron Oz (Tel Aviv University) "Holography and Hydrodynamics"
Subir Sachdev (Harvard University) review talk "Quantum matter and gauge-gravity duality: quantum criticality, superconductivity, and Fermi surfaces"
Nathan Seiberg (IAS, Princeton) review talk "Recent advances in SUSY"
Ashoke Sen (Harish-Chandra Research Institute, Allahabad) "What can black holes tell us about microstates?"
Tadashi Takayanagi (IPMU, the University of Tokyo) "Holographic Entanglement Entropy and its New Developments"
Dimitrios Tsimpis (Université de Lyon) "Uses of 3d toric varieties"
Frank Wilczek (MIT) "Three Ways Beyond the Standard Model"
Edward Witten (IAS, Princeton) "Chern-Simons theory from four dimensions"
Fabio Zwirner (University of Padua) review talk "LHC results and prospects from a theorist's viewpoint"

Here is the link:
http://www-conference.slu.se/strings2011/programme_NEW.html

 

[marcus]

I'd be interested to hear any reasons to explain a contrary view, but off-hand I'd say that QG 11 is obviously a far more interesting conference. The key factor is that it is mixed, so we should look more carefully at the makeup.
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/doku.php?id=qg11:programme
http://www-conference.slu.se/strings2011/programme_NEW.html
I think at this point, with a declining enthusiasm for string and the focus of string researchers tending to spread out into less specifically string-unification areas---QG in particular, that if you are organizing a conference you can get more interesting people to talk about more interesting stuff if you make it mixed.

It is just how it is IMHO. Many of the smart people are interested in what is going on in neighboring lines of research, not just string. So we are probably going to see more conferences like QG 11---that is more heterogeneity---in the future.

Of course it would be delightful to hear an argument to the contrary, if anybody can think one.

I'll try to sketch how the mix divides up later. For starters it looks like 8 string and 4 loop out of about 32. I see two "spectral action", two "causal", two "asymsafe". The interesting categories I have some difficulty counting are the Sugra and the Noncommutative Field Theory. Anybody else wants to report how the pie is sliced, that would be fine!

 

[john baez]

Well, I'm voting with my feet and going to the Quantum Theory and Gravitation conference in Zurich. Is it really called "QG 11"? I didn't think it was part of a series.

 

[marcus]

Well, I'm voting with my feet and going to the Quantum Theory and Gravitation conference in Zurich. Is it really called "QG 11"? I didn't think it was part of a series.

I don't think it is, but it is nevertheless abbreviated QG11 in the URL. The abbreviation is recognized by Google, so it is useful. One can google "QG11 Zurich" and get the conference website. That is about all that can be said in the abbreviation's favor.

Three names have been added to the Zurich speaker's list since I last posted a couple of days ago.
Laurent Freidel, Jeff Morton, Derek Wise

Freidel: The principle of relative locality
Morton: Extended Field Theories and Higher Gauge Theories
Wise: TBA

The title of Erik Verlinde's talk has been added to the Uppsala list:

Erik Verlinde (University of Amsterdam) "The Hidden Phase Space of Our Universe"
==================

Six people have responded so far! Thanks to MTd2, John Baez, Schreiber, Negru, and Erkokite for helping to get the poll off to a good start.

 

[marcus]

The title of Gary Shiu's talk has been added to the Uppsala list:

Gary Shiu (University of Wisconsin at Madison) "Towards Simple de Sitter Vacua"

Stefan Hollands' talk has been added to the Zurich programme:

Hollands: Quantum field theory correlators on manifolds at very large and very short distances

Eventually I'll recopy both lineups. Thanks to the seven people who voted so far in the poll! I encourage you to comment and, in particular, to give any special reasons you see for interest in either conference.

http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/doku.php?id=qg11:programme
http://www-conference.slu.se/strings2011/programme_NEW.html

====================

Incidental note about Stefan Hollands, who may be among those less well known to many of us:
Hollands gave one of the five "core lecture series" at this year's Zakopane QG school. He is an expert in the area of QFT on curved spacetimes.
http://www.fuw.edu.pl/~kostecki/school3/
==quote==
Stefan Hollands - Exact QFT in curved backgrounds (lecture notes: 1, 2, 3, 4)
QFT on curved backgrounds is the formulation of QFT which does not require the symmetries of Minkowski or (Anti) de Sitter space times. From the mathematical point of view this is the highest development of QFT. It is also an important intermediate step between the standard QFT and quantum gravity. As an approximation to quantum gravity it supplies some of the most potent intuitions of the field (holography, black hole entropy). The lecture will cover the recent results and successes in the exact construction of these quantum field theories.
==endquote==

 

[unusualname]

Both these conferences look very interesting.

 

[marcus]

Both these conferences look very interesting.

I'm curious to know what specifics? If you would care to mention some talks that particularly drew your attention.

 

[unusualname]

I'm curious to know what specifics? If you would care to mention some talks that particularly drew your attention.

Well, Strings 2011 has more nobel prize/fields medal winners for a start

But generally, the titles seem quite ambitious (not sure whether the talks will live up to that), you have big names like Wilzcek, Verlinde and Linde with very tasty titled talks. Some of the other "stars" like Witten and Maldacena have less inspiring titles, but you never know.

So Strings 2011 could be exciting stuff, even if it's basically "strings".

The QG11 conference is of course more diverse, and there are several tantalising subject titles, and some "big names" too, so it will almost certainly also be very "interesting".

(Joan Baez clearly voted for Zurich since he's invited to give a talk! )

 

[marcus]

(Joan Baez clearly voted for Zurich since he's invited to give a talk! )

Take you down to the harbor now--
Most of the sour grapes are gone from the bough.
Ghosts of Johanna will visit you there,
and winds of the old days will blow...through your hair.

 

[unusualname]

Take you down to the harbor now--
Most of the sour grapes are gone from the bough.
Ghosts of Johanna will visit you there,
and winds of the old days will blow...through your hair.

haha, easy slip to make, sorry, I of course mean John (she's his cousin I think?)

 

[marcus]

haha, easy slip to make, sorry, I of course mean John (she's his cousin I think?)

I think that's right. I recall reading that John's and Joan's fathers were brothers. Her father was a physicist.
I'm glad to have your comment about what gives interest to the Strings 2011 conference. You mentioned Wilczek and Verlinde's talks. This fits in with what I was noticing about the value of having a MIX.

My guess is what you point to as potentially spicing up the conference will in part turn out to be NON-STRING content. Verlinde entropic gravity is essentially an alternative approach---that doesn't mean you can't draw connections (I think you are well aware that in math there's apt to be some level at which two ways to analyze something are analogous, or where tools can be taken over and used in another context.)

Wilczek is going to talk about THREE ways to go beyond the Standard Model. My guess is that at least two of these will not be especially stringy. His recent book Lightness of Being was not. But that's just a guess. Eventually we'll find out.

 

[marcus]

The Uppsala list of talks was updated today. Now we have a nearly complete coverage of the program. I count only 5 talks still to be announced (TBA): Gaiotto, Greene, Johansson, Shatashvili, Volovich.

List of confirmed speakers

Niklas Beisert (AEI Potsdam) "Counterterms and E7 Symmetry in N=8 Supergravity"
Sergio Cecotti (SISSA) "N=2 gauge theories and algebras"
Miranda Cheng (Harvard) "K3 String Theory, the Largest Mathieu Group, and Holographic Moonshine"
Henriette Elvang (University of Michigan) review talk "Recent progress on amplitudes"
Davide Gaiotto (IAS, Princeton) TBA
Rajesh Gopakumar (Harish-Chandra Research Institute, Allahabad) "Holographic Minimal Models"
Mariana Graña (Saclay) "Constructing metastable vacua in Klebanov-Strassler"
Michael Green (Cambridge University) "Multiloop systematics in pure spinor field theory"
Brian Greene (Columbia University) TBA
David Gross (KITP, Santa Barbara) opening talk
Sergei Gukov (Caltech) "A-polynomial, B-model, and S-duality"
Jeff Harvey (University of Chicago) summary talk
Chris Hull (Imperial College) "Double Field Theory and Duality"
Henrik Johansson (Saclay) TBA
Thomas Klose (Uppsala University) "Recent Results for Holographic Three-Point Functions"
Andrei Linde (Stanford University) "Chaotic inflation in supergravity"
Juan Maldacena (IAS, Princeton) "Comments on de Sitter perturbation theory"
Marcos Mariño (University of Geneva) "Exact results and stringy effects in ABJM theory"
Liam McAllister (Cornell University) review talk "String cosmology"
Shiraz Minwalla (Tata Institute, Mumbai) "A Theory of Dissipative Superfluid Hydrodynamics"
Greg Moore (Rutgers University) review talk "The Recent Role of (2,0) Theories in Physical Mathematics"
Alexei Morozov (ITEP, Moscow) "Challenges of beta-deformation"
Yaron Oz (Tel Aviv University) "Holography and Hydrodynamics"
Vasily Pestun (Harvard) "Exact Results for 't Hooft Loops in Gauge Theories on S^4"
Subir Sachdev (Harvard University) review talk "Quantum matter and gauge-gravity duality: quantum criticality, superconductivity, and Fermi surfaces"
Nathan Seiberg (IAS, Princeton) review talk "Recent advances in SUSY"
Ashoke Sen (Harish-Chandra Research Institute, Allahabad) "What can black holes tell us about microstates?"
Samson Shatashvili (Trinity College, Dublin and IHES) TBA
Gary Shiu (University of Wisconsin at Madison) "Towards Simple de Sitter Vacua"
Tadashi Takayanagi (IPMU, the University of Tokyo) "Holographic Entanglement Entropy and its New Developments"
Dimitrios Tsimpis (Université de Lyon) "Uses of 3d toric varieties"
Erik Verlinde (University of Amsterdam) "The Hidden Phase Space of Our Universe"
Anastasia Volovich (Brown University) TBA
Frank Wilczek (MIT) "Three Ways Beyond the Standard Model"
Edward Witten (IAS, Princeton) "Chern-Simons theory from four dimensions"
Fabio Zwirner (University of Padua) review talk "LHC results and prospects from a theorist's viewpoint"

EDIT: I highlighted the Yaron Oz talk after seeing Atyy's post #13.
Thanks for pointing it out. Likewise to Unusualname--it's helpful to know what about the programme catches others' attention. I'll look up Yaron Oz's papers. I seem to remember him from years back on Sci.Physics.Research when Baez was moderating.

 

[atyy]

Take you down to the harbor now--
Most of the sour grapes are gone from the bough.
Ghosts of Johanna will visit you there,
and winds of the old days will blow...through your hair.

Wow, that's beautiful.

BTW, what do you think of Yaron Oz talking at strings? His coauthors include http://arxiv.org/abs/0905.3638" .

I think http://arxiv.org/abs/1101.2451" both also work with Jacobson's stuff at the back of their minds.

 

[marcus]

Slide PDFs are available for some of the Zurich lectures:

Rovelli:
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:zurichrovelli.pdf

Lewandowski:
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:lqgrecentadvanceszurich.pdf

Jacobson:
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:howgeneral-zurich.pdf

Hollands:
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:zurich.hollands.pdf

Blau:
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:zurichblau.pdf

Baez:
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:baez.susy.pdf

Links to the two programmes:

http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/doku.php?id=qg11:programme
http://www-conference.slu.se/strings2011/programme_NEW.html
https://www.akademikonferens.se/list.jsf?conf=strings2011

 

[marcus]

Enough new titles have been added to the Zurich QG11 list that I should update. Maybe I'll try some different colorcoded categories to show the mix from a different viewpoint.
Causal Dynamical Triangulations(CDT)
Spectral Action (Connes Noncommutative Geometry)
LQG (incl. Group Field Theory)
Asymptotic Safety
Foundations
String
======
Ambjorn: CDT, a quantum theory of geometry
Arnlind: Poisson Algebraic Geometry and Matrix Regularizations
Ashtekar: Quantum Cosmology and the Very Early Universe
Bachas: The problem of localization of gravity
Baez: Higher gauge theory, division algebras and superstrings
Barrett: State sum models and the spectral action
Beisert: Symmetries and Integrability for Scattering Amplitudes in N=4 Super Yang-Mills Theory
Blau: String Theory as a Theory of Quantum Gravity: a Status Report
Bossard: Toward the consistency of N=8 supergravity as a quantum field theory
Chamseddine: The Spectral Action
Compere: The translation anomaly of asymptotically flat spacetimes
Craps: Cosmological singularities in string theory
de Goursac: Renormalizability of noncommutative quantum field theories
Dixon: Ultraviolet behavior of quantum (super)gravity through four loops
Elvang: Symmetry constraints on the UV behavior of N=8 supergravity
Freidel: The principle of relative locality
Giulini: Very basic issues concerning quantum mechanics and gravitation
Hollands: Quantum field theory correlators on manifolds at very large and very short distances
Hoppe: Fundamental Structures of M-brane Theory
Jacobson: How general is the generalized second law?
Lechner: Covariant and local deformations of quantum field theories
Lewandowski: Canonical LQG: soluble models and other advances
Litim: Renormalisation group and the Planck scale
Loll: Nonperturbative highlights on quantum gravity from CDT
Longo: Boundary Quantum Field Theory and Conformal Field Theory
Morton: Extended Field Theories and Higher Gauge Theories
Mukhanov: Massive Gravity
Nicolai: Infinite-dimensional symmetries and the Wheeler-DeWitt equation
Oriti: Group field theory: a brief survey of recent developments
Reiterer: A class of gauges for the Einstein equations
Reuter: Einstein-Cartan Theory and Asymptotic Safety
Rovelli: Loop quantum gravity: the covariant dynamics
Shaposhnikov: Scale-invariant alternatives to general relativity
Speziale: Spin networks as twisted geometries
Steinacker: Matrix models, noncommutative gauge theory and emergent geometry
Wulkenhaar: Ward identities in matrix models arising from noncommutative geometry

I count about 36 talks. Different parts of the mix are highlighted with different colors (e.g. string talks colored blue) to give an impression of the variety. The test will be how well these different communities listen to each other, share ideas, and eventually support collaboration. I have no idea how it is apt to work out, but I'm hopeful. I'm not sure what Nicolai's talk is going to be about so it is just a guess to classify it "foundations"--a potentially important topic headlined on the front page by the organizers.
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/doku.php?id=qg11:programme

 

[marcus]

Slide PDFs available so far from the Zurich QG11 conference:

Speziale: Spin networks as twisted geometries
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:speziale.pdf
Rovelli: Loop quantum gravity: the covariant dynamics
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:zurichrovelli.pdf
Lewandowski: Canonical LQG: soluble models and other advances
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:lqgrecentadvanceszurich.pdf
Jacobson: How general is the generalized second law?
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:howgeneral-zurich.pdf
Hollands: Quantum field theory correlators on manifolds at very large and very short distances
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:zurich.hollands.pdf
Compere: The translation anomaly of asymptotically flat spacetimes
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:compere.pdf
Blau: String Theory as a Theory of Quantum Gravity: a Status Report
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:zurichblau.pdf
Beisert: Symmetries and Integrability for Scattering Amplitudes in N=4 Super Yang-Mills Theory
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:beisert.pdf
Baez: Higher gauge theory, division algebras and superstrings
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:baez.susy.pdf
Ashtekar: Quantum Cosmology and the Very Early Universe
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:ashtekar.pdf
Ambjorn: CDT, a quantum theory of geometry
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:ambjorn.pdf

Links to the QG11 and Strings 2011 programmes:

http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/doku.php?id=qg11:programme
http://www-conference.slu.se/strings2011/programme_NEW.html
https://www.akademikonferens.se/list.jsf?conf=strings2011

I mentioned that some of the talks at QG11 are what I would classify as about foundations. Or, in the language of the QG11 website front page general theory.
Where they list the half-dozen topics the conference is to focus on, the first topic listed is:

"General quantum theory, relativistic quantum theory, emergence of space(-time)"

So, in trying to understand the MIX of the QG11 conference (Official name: "Quantum Theory and Gravitation") I tried to identify some talks that could be considered of that basic general foundations type---rather than related to a specific approach.

I came up with these four possible candidates for that category:

Nicolai: Infinite-dimensional symmetries and the Wheeler-DeWitt equation
Jacobson: How general is the generalized second law?
Giulini: Very basic issues concerning quantum mechanics and gravitation
Freidel: The principle of relative locality

I'm not sure about the classification, and, to repeat, I have no good guess as to the content of Nicolai's talk. Only that it doesn't seem to fit in with established approaches---like string (his previous research has been mainly string.)

Hopefully Nicolai will be one of those who posts his slides PDF, and so we will eventually see what the talk is about.)
===================

Two more titles added to the Uppsala programme,
Henrik Johansson (Saclay) "Lie Algebra Structures in Yang-Mills and Gravity Amplitudes"
Anastasia Volovich (Brown University) "Symblifying Scattering Amplitudes in N=4 Yang- Mills",
now only three TBAs remain (Gaiotto, Greene, Shatashvili).

 

[marcus]

More slide PDFs are available from the Zurich QG11 conference. Fifteen so far:

Speziale: Spin networks as twisted geometries
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:speziale.pdf
Rovelli: Loop quantum gravity: the covariant dynamics
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:zurichrovelli.pdf
Oriti: Group field theory: a brief survey of recent developments
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:oriti.pdf
Lewandowski: Canonical LQG: soluble models and other advances
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:lqgrecentadvanceszurich.pdf
Jacobson: How general is the generalized second law?
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:howgeneral-zurich.pdf
Hollands: Quantum field theory correlators on manifolds at very large and very short distances
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:zurich.hollands.pdf
Giulini: Very basic issues concerning quantum mechanics and gravitation
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:giulini_qg2011.pdf
de Goursac: Renormalizability of noncommutative quantum field theories
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:goursac-zurich2011.pdf
Compere: The translation anomaly of asymptotically flat spacetimes
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:compere.pdf
Blau: String Theory as a Theory of Quantum Gravity: a Status Report
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:zurichblau.pdf
Beisert: Symmetries and Integrability for Scattering Amplitudes in N=4 Super Yang-Mills Theory
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:beisert.pdf
Bachas: The problem of localization of gravity
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:bachas.pdf
Baez: Higher gauge theory, division algebras and superstrings
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:baez.susy.pdf
Ashtekar: Quantum Cosmology and the Very Early Universe
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:ashtekar.pdf
Ambjorn: CDT, a quantum theory of geometry
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:ambjorn.pdf http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/doku.php?id=qg11:programme
http://www-conference.slu.se/strings2011/programme_NEW.html
https://www.akademikonferens.se/list.jsf?conf=strings2011 In the Uppsala programme, all but one title has now been listed. Here are the additions:
Davide Gaiotto (IAS, Princeton) "Field theories labeled by three-manifolds"
Henrik Johansson (Saclay) "Lie Algebra Structures in Yang-Mills and Gravity Amplitudes"
Samson Shatashvili (Trinity College, Dublin and IHES) "Integrability in Quantum Theory, and Applications"
Anastasia Volovich (Brown University) "Symblifying Scattering Amplitudes in N=4 Yang-Mills"

Brian Greene's conference talk is the only one still TBA.
==========================

Norbert Bodendorfer has been added to the Zurich QG11 program! He is a collaborator of Thomas Thiemann at Erlangen:
Bodendorfer: Towards Loop Quantum Supergravity

He will share an hour timeslot next week with Derek Wise, one of John Baez PhD students who has been applying higher gauge theory, 2-groups, Cartan geometry.

Thiemann Thurn and Bodendorfer have recently posted a paper where they do LQG Supergravity, actually a whole series of 8 papers by those three just in the past 2 months. So NB will presumably report on that. Should be interesting. Here are the 8 papers:
http://arxiv.org/find/grp_physics/1/au:+Bodendorfer_N/0/1/0/all/0/1

 

[marcus]

Since I last listed the lineup of talks at the Uppsala Strings 2011 conference, five titles which were TBA have been posted. The list is now complete, showing all 36 invited speakers' talks:

Niklas Beisert (AEI Potsdam) "Counterterms and E7 Symmetry in N=8 Supergravity"
Sergio Cecotti (SISSA) "N=2 gauge theories and algebras"
Miranda Cheng (Harvard) "K3 String Theory, the Largest Mathieu Group, and Holographic Moonshine"
Henriette Elvang (University of Michigan) review talk "Recent progress on amplitudes"
Davide Gaiotto (IAS, Princeton) "Field theories labeled by three-manifolds"
Rajesh Gopakumar (Harish-Chandra Research Institute, Allahabad) "Holographic Minimal Models"
Mariana Graña (Saclay) "Constructing metastable vacua in Klebanov-Strassler"
Michael Green (Cambridge University) "Multiloop systematics in pure spinor field theory"
Brian Greene (Columbia University) "Warped tunneling"
David Gross (KITP, Santa Barbara) opening talk
Sergei Gukov (Caltech) "A-polynomial, B-model, and S-duality"
Jeff Harvey (University of Chicago) summary talk
Chris Hull (Imperial College) "Double Field Theory and Duality"
Henrik Johansson (Saclay) "Lie Algebra Structures in Yang-Mills and Gravity Amplitudes"
Thomas Klose (Uppsala University) "Recent Results for Holographic Three-Point Functions"
Andrei Linde (Stanford University) "Chaotic inflation in supergravity"
Juan Maldacena (IAS, Princeton) "Comments on de Sitter perturbation theory"
Marcos Mariño (University of Geneva) "Exact results and stringy effects in ABJM theory"
Liam McAllister (Cornell University) review talk "String cosmology"
Shiraz Minwalla (Tata Institute, Mumbai) "A Theory of Dissipative Superfluid Hydrodynamics"
Greg Moore (Rutgers University) review talk "The Recent Role of (2,0) Theories in Physical Mathematics"
Alexei Morozov (ITEP, Moscow) "Challenges of beta-deformation"
Yaron Oz (Tel Aviv University) "Holography and Hydrodynamics"
Vasily Pestun (Harvard) "Exact Results for 't Hooft Loops in Gauge Theories on S^4"
Subir Sachdev (Harvard University) review talk "Quantum matter and gauge-gravity duality: quantum criticality, superconductivity, and Fermi surfaces"
Nathan Seiberg (IAS, Princeton) review talk "Recent advances in SUSY"
Ashoke Sen (Harish-Chandra Research Institute, Allahabad) "What can black holes tell us about microstates?"
Samson Shatashvili (Trinity College, Dublin and IHES) "Integrability in Quantum Theory, and Applications"
Gary Shiu (University of Wisconsin at Madison) "Towards Simple de Sitter Vacua"
Tadashi Takayanagi (IPMU, the University of Tokyo) "Holographic Entanglement Entropy and its New Developments"
Dimitrios Tsimpis (Université de Lyon) "Uses of 3d toric varieties"
Erik Verlinde (University of Amsterdam) "The Hidden Phase Space of Our Universe"
Anastasia Volovich (Brown University) "Symblifying Scattering Amplitudes in N=4 Yang- Mills"
Frank Wilczek (MIT) "Three Ways Beyond the Standard Model"
Edward Witten (IAS, Princeton) "Chern-Simons theory from four dimensions"
Fabio Zwirner (University of Padua) review talk "LHC results and prospects from a theorist's viewpoint"

The conference starts in just exactly one week, on 27 June. So far 257 people have registered to participate. If anyone has comment or analysis of the programme, or remarks about individual talks, it would be very interesting to hear that!

Seventeen slides PDFs are now available for the Zurich mixed-QG conference. Two more since I listed them in the preceding post. The two slide-sets that have been added are those of Jeff Morton (Lisbon IST) and Joakim Arnlind (Potsdam AEI):
Arnlind: Poisson Algebraic Geometry and Matrix Regularizations
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:arnlind.pdf
Morton: Extended Field Theories and Higher Gauge Theories
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:morton.pdf http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/doku.php?id=qg11:programme
http://www-conference.slu.se/strings2011/programme_NEW.html
https://www.akademikonferens.se/list.jsf?conf=strings2011

 

[marcus]

We now have a complete list of the Zurich QG conference talks---except for one! Derek Wise's talk is still TBA. It is scheduled for Thursday and presumably will be about 2-groups and Cartan connections. He is a Baez PhD now with Thiemann's group at Erlangen

It's worth mentioning that the Potsdam Albert Einstein Institute has made a strong showing among the speakers at the Zurich conference. Arnlind Beisert Nicolai Oriti. Except for the Zurich locals, four is a lot from anyone place given that the conference (now in its second week) brought people from all over. I didn't notice that many speakers from any other one institution.

The Zurich QG11 programme has 38 talks. I will give the updated list continuing with the earlier colorcoding to show the various topics and QG approaches. I didn't use enough different colors to match how diverse it is. Among the talks not classified by color there Matrix/Noncommuntative Field theory, Higher Gauge theory à la Baez, and straight Supergravity (4 and 8) à la Lance Dixon. Some of my guesses may be wrong, so you have to finish the job of sorting it out Quantum Theory and Gravitation conference ("QG11") programme partially color-coded to show the mix.

Causal Dynamical Triangulations(CDT)
Spectral Action (Connes Noncommutative Geometry)
LQG (incl. Group Field Theory)
Asymptotic Safety
Foundations-general considerations
String
======
Ambjorn: CDT, a quantum theory of geometry
Arnlind: Poisson Algebraic Geometry and Matrix Regularizations
Ashtekar: Quantum Cosmology and the Very Early Universe
Bachas: The problem of localization of gravity
Baez: Higher gauge theory, division algebras and superstrings
Barrett: State sum models and the spectral action
Beisert: Symmetries and Integrability for Scattering Amplitudes in N=4 Super Yang-Mills Theory
Blau: String Theory as a Theory of Quantum Gravity: a Status Report
Bodendorfer: Towards Loop Quantum Supergravity
Bossard: Toward the consistency of N=8 supergravity as a quantum field theory
Chamseddine: The Spectral Action
Compere: The translation anomaly of asymptotically flat spacetimes
Craps: Cosmological singularities in string theory
de Goursac: Renormalizability of noncommutative quantum field theories
Dixon: Ultraviolet behavior of quantum (super)gravity through four loops
Elvang: Symmetry constraints on the UV behavior of N=8 supergravity
Freidel: The principle of relative locality
Giulini: Very basic issues concerning quantum mechanics and gravitation
Hollands: Quantum field theory correlators on manifolds at very large and very short distances
Hoppe: Fundamental Structures of M-brane Theory
Jacobson: How general is the generalized second law?
Lechner: Covariant and local deformations of quantum field theories
Lewandowski: Canonical LQG: soluble models and other advances
Litim: Renormalisation group and the Planck scale
Loll: Nonperturbative highlights on quantum gravity from CDT
Longo: Boundary Quantum Field Theory and Conformal Field Theory
Morton: Extended Field Theories and Higher Gauge Theories
Mukhanov: Massive Gravity
Nicolai: Infinite-dimensional symmetries and the Wheeler-DeWitt equation
Oriti: Group field theory: a brief survey of recent developments
Reiterer: A class of gauges for the Einstein equations
Reuter: Einstein-Cartan Theory and Asymptotic Safety
Rovelli: Loop quantum gravity: the covariant dynamics
Shaposhnikov: Scale-invariant alternatives to general relativity
Speziale: Spin networks as twisted geometries
Steinacker: Matrix models, noncommutative gauge theory and emergent geometry
Wise: TBA
Wulkenhaar: Ward identities in matrix models arising from noncommutative geometry

http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/doku.php?id=qg11:programme

I am still hoping to see the slides PDF posted online for two talks that were given today 20 June:
Dixon: Ultraviolet behavior of quantum (super)gravity through four loops
Hoppe: Fundamental Structures of M-brane Theory

 

[Fra]

When is the talks made public? Are they put up on some website after the conference?

Just skimming titles, Jacobsson, Litim, friedel, bachas and Wilczek sounds like something I'd like to skim when available.

/Fredrik

 

[marcus]

When is the talks made public? Are they put up on some website after the conference?

Just skimming titles, Jacobsson, Litim, friedel, bachas and Wilczek sounds like something I'd like to skim when available.

/Fredrik

Fra, I don't have a complete answer to that. Some slide PDFs are available from the Zurich QG11 conference. Already around 22 PDFs so far. Today they posted slides for two people who have worked on deriving the Standard Model using Noncommutative Geometry: John Barrett and Ali Chamseddine.

Speziale: Spin networks as twisted geometries
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:speziale.pdf
Rovelli: Loop quantum gravity: the covariant dynamics
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:zurichrovelli.pdf
Oriti: Group field theory: a brief survey of recent developments
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:oriti.pdf
Morton: Extended Field Theories and Higher Gauge Theories
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:morton.pdf
Lewandowski: Canonical LQG: soluble models and other advances
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:lqgrecentadvanceszurich.pdf
Lechner: Covariant and local deformations of quantum field theories
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:gandalf_lechner_-_zuerich_2011.pdf
Jacobson: How general is the generalized second law?
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:howgeneral-zurich.pdf
Hollands: Quantum field theory correlators on manifolds at very large and very short distances
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:zurich.hollands.pdf
Giulini: Very basic issues concerning quantum mechanics and gravitation
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:giulini_qg2011.pdf
Dixon: Ultraviolet behavior of quantum (super)gravity through four loops
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:ld.ethz.qg.pdf
de Goursac: Renormalizability of noncommutative quantum field theories
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:goursac-zurich2011.pdf
Compere: The translation anomaly of asymptotically flat spacetimes
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:compere.pdf
Chamseddine: The Spectral Action
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:chamseddine.pdf
Bossard: Toward the consistency of N=8 supergravity as a quantum field theory
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:n_8consistency.pdf
Blau: String Theory as a Theory of Quantum Gravity: a Status Report
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:zurichblau.pdf
Beisert: Symmetries and Integrability for Scattering Amplitudes in N=4 Super Yang-Mills Theory
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:beisert.pdf
Barrett: State sum models and the spectral action
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:rg-zurich-talk.pdf
Baez: Higher gauge theory, division algebras and superstrings
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:baez.susy.pdf
Bachas: The problem of localization of gravity
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:bachas.pdf
Ashtekar: Quantum Cosmology and the Very Early Universe
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:ashtekar.pdf
Arnlind: Poisson Algebraic Geometry and Matrix Regularizations
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:arnlind.pdf
Ambjorn: CDT, a quantum theory of geometry
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:ambjorn.pdf http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/doku.php?id=qg11:programme
http://www-conference.slu.se/strings2011/programme_NEW.html
https://www.akademikonferens.se/list.jsf?conf=strings2011 Names added to the PDF list recently included Jeff Morton (Lisbon IST), Joakim Arnlind (Potsdam AEI), Ali Chamseddine (Beirut, Tours), John Barrett (Nottingham)...
Replying in more detail to your question, I don't expect videos of the Zurich talks will be posted. The Uppsala conference starts next week 27 June--we just have to wait and see what they post online.

 

[atyy]

Ambjorn: CDT, a quantum theory of geometry
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:ambjorn.pdf

Slide 21 gives amazing proof of the discreteness of spacetime

 

[weburbia]

These are both interesting conferences but to vote on which is the most interesting is nonsensical.

The strings conference is a specialized meeting for string theorists so it is very technical and anyone who is not already an expert in the subject would only find a few talks of interest. The QG conference covers all approaches to quantum gravity including string theory and is designed to bring these people together. Obviously it is less specialized and the talks should be pitched to have a wider appeal. If the QG conference did not win the poll there would be something wrong with the choice of talks.

A more meaningful comparison would have been between the strings conference and another specialized conference, such as loops 2011

 

[marcus]

Slide 21 gives amazing proof of the discreteness of spacetime

A proof by exhaustion---Einstein tries to prove the contrary until he is blue in the face.

These are both interesting conferences but to vote on which is the most interesting is nonsensical.

The strings conference is a specialized meeting for string theorists so it is very technical and anyone who is not already an expert in the subject would only find a few talks of interest. The QG conference covers all approaches to quantum gravity including string theory and is designed to bring these people together. Obviously it is less specialized and the talks should be pitched to have a wider appeal. If the QG conference did not win the poll there would be something wrong with the choice of talks.

A more meaningful comparison would have been between the strings conference and another specialized conference, such as loops 2011

... as if non-experts could make any educated choice... guess how a vote on a conference on quantum spirituality, time travel and free energy would go in comparison!

Interesting/entertaining responses. Thanks. Will reply later.

 

[suprised]

The strings conference is a specialized meeting for string theorists so it is very technical and anyone who is not already an expert in the subject would only find a few talks of interest. The QG conference covers all approaches to quantum gravity including string theory and is designed to bring these people together. Obviously it is less specialized and the talks should be pitched to have a wider appeal. If the QG conference did not win the poll there would be something wrong with the choice of talks.

... as if non-experts could make any educated choice... guess how a vote on a conference on quantum spirituality, time travel and free energy would go in comparison!

 

[atyy]

... as if non-experts could make any educated choice... guess how a vote on a conference on quantum spirituality, time travel and free energy would go in comparison!

String theory does pertain to the soul.

http://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0603098 (p35)

 

[weburbia]

String theory does pertain to the soul.

This is ruled out by the no ghosts theorem

 

[atyy]

This is ruled out by the no ghosts theorem

If the soul has a body it is not a ghost.

 

[MTd2]

Ghosts are lost souls! ;)

 

[marcus]

Lance Dixon's Zurich slides PDF is posted:
Dixon: Ultraviolet behavior of quantum (super)gravity through four loops
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:ld.ethz.qg.pdf

For anyone who doesn't know of him, Dixon is at SLAC and is a worldclass Sugra expert.
He attended Strings 2008 (that was the Strings conference at CERN where Rovelli gave an invited talk about LQG). Dixon was the one the Strings '08 organizers invited to give the Sugra talk.

Someone on this thread suggested that the Zurich talks might be "dumbed down". I don't think so. It is an elite top-level audience: people able to understand several different QG approaches and smart enough to be interested in hearing from several different approaches.
You can see that the talks are not inordinately dumbed down just by looking at the slides PDFs.
Much of the material is not entry-level by any means.

Maybe have a look at Dixon's slides?

BTW I see people like Luis Alvarez-Gaume (CERN theory division) and Roberto Percacci (SISSA) are attending the Zurich talks. (But not Uppsala.) Even though they are not themselves giving presentations.

 

[marcus]

Sample slides (#34 and 35) from Dixon's talk:

Is N=8 SUGRA “only” as good as QED?
• QED is renormalizable, but its perturbation series has zero radius of convergence in a: ~ L! aL
• UV renormalons associated with UV Landau pole
• But for small a it works pretty well:
g_e - 2 agrees with experiment to 10 digits
• Also, tree-level (super)gravity works well for s << M_Pl²
• Many pointlike nonperturbative UV completions for QED: asymptotically free GUTs
• What is/are nonperturbative UV completion(s) for N=8 SUGRA? Is the only possibility superstring theory? Or could some be pointlike too?

Outlook
• Through 4 loops, the 4-graviton scattering amplitude of N=8 supergravity has UV behavior no worse than the corresponding 4-gluon amplitude of N=4 SYM.
• Will the same continue to happen at higher loops? 5 loops will provide a strong test! If so, then N=8 supergravity would be a finite, point-like theory of quantum gravity.
• We need a new way to look at the problem, rather than loop by loop! Is there a deep symmetry responsible?
• N=8 supergravity is still only a “toy model” for quantum gravity – we don‟t see any way to use it to describe the strong and weak interactions.
• Still, could it point the way to other, more realistic, finite point-like theories? (A big challenge, but maybe N=8 gauging --> N<8 can be a first step...)

Slide #36 is kind of funny. You can look for it yourself.

 

[weburbia]

I did not say that the QG conference was dumbed down. I said it was less specialized and the talks should be pitched to have a wider appeal, not the same thing. The QG talks are less specialised but still technical (except for a few such as Blau's talk)

I am amazed that you think this is not the case. It is clear that the strings talks are much more specific and most would be of little interest to someone not already well versed in string theory. You can see talks of a similar level of specialty at the loops conference http://www.iem.csic.es/loops11/

Does nobody else agree?

 

[marcus]

To remind folks of what the poll (and this thread) is about:

I'd be interested to hear any reasons to explain a contrary view, but off-hand I'd say that QG 11 is obviously a far more interesting conference. The key factor is that it is mixed, so we should look more carefully at the makeup.
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/doku.php?id=qg11:programme
http://www-conference.slu.se/strings2011/programme_NEW.html
I think at this point, with a declining enthusiasm for string and the focus of string researchers tending to spread out into less specifically string-unification areas---QG in particular, that if you are organizing a conference you can get more interesting people to talk about more interesting stuff if you make it mixed.

It is just how it is IMHO. Many of the smart people are interested in what is going on in neighboring lines of research, not just string. So we are probably going to see more conferences like QG 11---that is more heterogeneity---in the future.

Of course it would be delightful to hear an argument to the contrary, if anybody can think one.

It is not a popularity contest between string and loop. At the Zurich conference there are roughly an equal number of talks of those types (actually more string). But those two approaches account for only about a third of the 36 talks, roughly speaking.
There are maybe a half dozen ways of approaching QG here, and some of the most interesting talks are neither explicitly string or loop.

I think it misses the main point to say it would be more meaningful to run a poll between strings and loops conferences. What is exciting here is the Zurich conference is a mix and it is the first such. We will see how it goes.

I was reading Ted Jacobson's Zurich slides PDF today. On the generalized second law. I thought it was really really interesting. That's the kind of thing that can turn up at a mixed conference.
Congratulations to the organizers for getting talks like that together!

Lance Dixon also appears to have given a great talk, check out his slides PDF.

Here are the 28 Zurich slides PDFs that are available on line so far:

Speziale: Spin networks as twisted geometries
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:speziale.pdf
Shaposhnikov: Scale-invariant alternatives to general relativity
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:shaposhnikov.pdf NEW
Rovelli: Loop quantum gravity: the covariant dynamics
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:zurichrovelli.pdf
Reuter: Einstein-Cartan Theory and Asymptotic Safety
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:reuter.pdf NEW
Reiterer: A class of gauges for the Einstein equations
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:reiterer.pdf NEW
Oriti: Group field theory: a brief survey of recent developments
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:oriti.pdf
Morton: Extended Field Theories and Higher Gauge Theories
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:morton.pdf
Loll: Nonperturbative highlights on quantum gravity from CDT
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:loll.pdf NEW
Lewandowski: Canonical LQG: soluble models and other advances
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:lqgrecentadvanceszurich.pdf
Lechner: Covariant and local deformations of quantum field theories
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:gandalf_lechner_-_zuerich_2011.pdf
Jacobson: How general is the generalized second law?
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:howgeneral-zurich.pdf
Hollands: Quantum field theory correlators on manifolds at very large and very short distances
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:zurich.hollands.pdf
Giulini: Very basic issues concerning quantum mechanics and gravitation
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:giulini_qg2011.pdf
Freidel: The principle of relative locality
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:freidel.pdf NEW
Elvang: Symmetry constraints on the UV behavior of N=8 supergravity
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:countertermszurich-final.pdf NEW
Dixon: Ultraviolet behavior of quantum (super)gravity through four loops
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:ld.ethz.qg.pdf
de Goursac: Renormalizability of noncommutative quantum field theories
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:goursac-zurich2011.pdf
Compere: The translation anomaly of asymptotically flat spacetimes
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:compere.pdf
Chamseddine: The Spectral Action
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:chamseddine.pdf
Bossard: Toward the consistency of N=8 supergravity as a quantum field theory
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:n_8consistency.pdf
Blau: String Theory as a Theory of Quantum Gravity: a Status Report
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:zurichblau.pdf
Beisert: Symmetries and Integrability for Scattering Amplitudes in N=4 Super Yang-Mills Theory
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:beisert.pdf
Barrett: State sum models and the spectral action
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:rg-zurich-talk.pdf
Baez: Higher gauge theory, division algebras and superstrings
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:baez.susy.pdf
Bachas: The problem of localization of gravity
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:bachas.pdf
Ashtekar: Quantum Cosmology and the Very Early Universe
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:ashtekar.pdf
Arnlind: Poisson Algebraic Geometry and Matrix Regularizations
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:arnlind.pdf
Ambjorn: CDT, a quantum theory of geometry
http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=qg11:ambjorn.pdf

Links to the QG11 (Zurich) and Strings 2011 (Uppsala) websites:

http://www.conferences.itp.phys.ethz.ch/doku.php?id=qg11:programme
http://www-conference.slu.se/strings2011/programme_NEW.html
https://www.akademikonferens.se/list.jsf?conf=strings2011

 

[Fra]

I see the voting just as a little bit of fun.

I voted for the mix that would interest me more. It's true that a pure loop might have interested Me less than the mix.

I am not personally appealed to neither pure string nor pure LQG. I see both frameworks as missing key traits.

This is exactly why I think the somewhat more general thinking is more interesting and is likely to lead to the future. Like Jacobssons slides... which seems new deeper founding principles, not present in strings or LQG.

/Fredrik

 

[marcus]

Exactly! This is a new kind of conference (at least at this level on this scale). And there is a reason to get these different research communities together listening to each other and asking questions of each other.

Partly it is simply that the smarter more creative people are going to be drawn in, because they find it more INTERESTING when there is a mix. So you get more interesting presentations from a better grade of contributor (wanting to come, so you don't have to bribe name people with big perks and inducements.) The registration fee at Strings 2011 is around $800*. Go figure.

Partly it is just a good idea to get the different communities in contact sharing ideas.

Lance Dixon, Ted Jacobson, John Baez, Hermann Nicolai, Ali Chamseddine...do you think any of them are even going to attend Strings Uppsala? Heh.

*Strings website says the reg fee is 5000 Krona now or a bit over 5600 SEK at the door, divide by 6.38. You know the exchange rate better than I. Around $800. To me that says it's hard to get the likes of Wilczek and Witten to come and be names at a dull conference. But who knows? maybe stuff is just very expensive in Sweden. :-)

Fra! take a look at Chamseddine's slides PDF. Gives some help understanding of how the Standard Model arises from Noncommutative Geometry.